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Friday, July 12, 2013

Taking Tea with...HELENE YOUNG (and a giveaway)

This week I have Australian romantic suspense author, Helene Young, to join me for tea. 

My dear Helene, do come in...

Hi Alison, thanks for having me around for a chat! Congratulations on the multiple award nominations for GATHER THE BONES. You must be delighted.

Thank you. I know how much an award nomination means to me but you must be thrilled that your last book, BURNING LIES, has been nominated for a RUBY Award (and your other books have also  garnered enormous kudos)? What does nomination (and winning!) awards mean to you?

I am thrilled and a little overwhelmed to have the final book in my Border Watch trilogy join the first two on the RUBY shortlist. Winning the award in 2011 and 2012 made a great deal of difference to my confidence level. When Wings of Fear won in 2011 I was struggling to find a home for BURNING LIES and the RUBY helped secure me a place with Penguin Australia. Knowing that readers had connected with my stories continues to be a humbling, but uplifting feeling. BURNING LIES is also on the short list for the Daphne du Maurier awards in America so it’s wonderful validation for my almost ‘orphaned’ story!


(Helene has a copy of Burning Lies to give away to a lucky commenter...see below)

Helene, I know you have recently made a lifestyle change and I will come back to that shortly, but first I have always wanted to know more about your former career. You are/were a commercial airline pilot. I remember the horror when the first woman in Australia flew a commercial plane. You would think it was going to drop out of the sky! When did you become a pilot and what was your experience of being a woman in what was (and still is?), a man's world?

I remember very clearly the battle Deborah Lawrie (Wardley) fought against Ansett and the establishment to earn the right to pilot a commercial jet aircraft in Australian. At the time I was in high school and couldn’t believe that women were still being shut out of the airlines. Her very public court case also may have been the reason my Career Guidance Officer suggested I might like nursing instead of flying…

Having left school in 1980 I didn’t start flying until 1989 (I had a lot of fun in the intervening years!). Those with long memories will remember 1989 as the year of the pilots' strike. It wasn’t the most auspicious start to a career, but being a woman worked in my favour. I did my training at Archerfield Aerodrome in Brisbane where there were about 120 working pilots of which one was a woman. The owner of the flying school had a teenage daughter who was an aspiring pilot and he was keen to have a female mentor for her. Once I finished my Instructor training he employed me and I’ve been flying ever since. Industry wide about 5% of working pilots are women. In the Qantaslink base in Cairns 20% of our pilots are women. The odds of going to work with a crew of four women are pretty darned good and I love it!

Helene at the controls of a Dash 8
Like most industries there are glass ceilings, but I’ve had some wonderful men who’ve mentored me and I’m now a Check and Training Captain with the airline. Although of course I’d love to see the participation rate continue to grow.

Please have a cucumber sandwich and tell me about your recent "seachange"? How is your dog adapting to life as an "old sea dog"?

Zeus, the old sea dog, basking in the sun
Yum, I do love a cucumber sandwich! Our seachange was 12 years in the planning and execution and we’re now both enjoying our life afloat. Zeus has settled in well, but the obvious difficulty with no longer being able to pop out the dog flap to inspect the bushes in the back yard has made for some sleepless nights… However it’s a sunny winter in Cairns so he spends a large part of his day snoozing on the back deck in the sun. Marina life has a definite rhythm all of its own!
   
Your latest book, HALF MOON BAY, has been on a bit of a journey of its own since you first wrote it. What was the inspiration behind the story and how did it change from the original concept?

I finished the first version of HALF MOON BAY in 2005 and it was a finalist in the RWA Emerald Award in 2007. The current version looks very different with much more action and a more solid romance.

One of the main inspirations for HALF MOON BAY came from growing up at Currumbin Beach and seeing the way a community of retirees could find themselves facing huge changes as the tide of development swept their beach shacks aside. Council corruption was a given at the time and that sense of injustice stayed with me. The characters of Ellie and her sister, Nina, owe much to my sister and her friends who were all journalist with high ideals and incredible dedication to their jobs.

In the rewriting of the story before I submitted it to Penguin I also delved more into the trauma of war on both the armed forces personal and the war reporters so strengthening that part of the story was essential. But I think the thread that has always fascinated me is how people cope when someone they love or trust has crossed the invisible moral line in pursuit of justice or the truth. For Ellie finding the truth about her sister may mean she has to accept Nina is not the wise and ethical woman she looked up. I think we can all relate to that sense of betrayal and I hope Half Moon Bay resonates with readers.

Thanks for chatting!

And thanks for being such a wonderful guest, Helene. You must fly...!


More about

HALF MOON BAY
Ellie Wilding has been running from her past, but when the residents of Half Moon Bay call for help she knows it's finally time to return home.  As an international photojournalist, she's used to violence in war zones, but she's shocked when it erupts in the sleepy hamlet on the north coast of New South Wales, threatening all she holds dear.
Battle-weary Nicholas Lawson walked away from his military career leaving unfinished business. In a coastal backwater, that decision returns to haunt him. He remembers all too vividly his last lethal assignment in Afghanistan when Ellie's sister, Nina, was shot and killed. Ellie's been in his dreams ever since, even if she doesn't remember him…
As a storm rages and floodwaters rise, Ellie struggles to save her community. But who can she trust? Nick Lawson, the dangerously attractive stranger with secrets, or an old friend who's never let her down?
 Find Helene at www.heleneyoung.com

HELENE HAS VERY KINDLY LEFT ME WITH A COPY OF BURNING LIES FOR A LUCKY COMMENTER. JOIN IN OUR CONVERSATION AND TELL US OF ANY MAJOR CAREER CHANGES YOU HAVE MADE IN YOUR LIFE?
(Comments close 17 July - if you wish to be included in the draw please leave an email address where you can be contacted)