Meet the Author: Averil Kenny

Averil Kenny is an Australian writer. Averil's debut novel Those Hamilton Sisters was published by Zaffre in August and is one of our Suffolk Loves picks. You can also borrow Averil's book from our eBook collection.

1. Who were your heroes and influences as you were growing up and when did you first realise that you wanted to write?

I was only five when I decided: ‘I have to be an author when I grow up!’ One of my earliest and clearest memories: sitting in the backseat of my family car, with a copy of The Magic Faraway Tree on my lap, and knowing what I had to do with my life from then on. My heroes were always female authors: Enid Blyton inspired me throughout my girlhood; L. M. Montgomery became my favourite author when my beloved Nanna handed down her vintage edition of Anne of Green Gables; I fell in love with Jane Austen in my teen years; and, discovered Georgette Heyer and M. M. Kaye in my early twenties. Aside from those early favourites, I’ve always read voraciously across genres. We didn’t have a television growing up, so reading was my whole life! I was a precocious reader and well into all of my mum’s adult fiction before I’d reached high school.

2. What was your path to publication?

On my 30th birthday, I set the goal of publishing my first novel by the time I turned 40, in 2020. Over the following years, I wrote whenever inspiration struck and time allowed – in between birthing and raising four children. My manuscript was completed and out to Beta Readers by 2017. Next, I tried a couple of ‘slush piles’ (email catchment for unsolicited manuscripts). The slush pile process was disheartening – the manuscript just disappeared for months at a time, or for good, without any feedback. But I had determined to publish my first novel by my 40th birthday, so I set off on another route: self-publishing.

I sought out a brilliant freelance editor to help me polish my novel, and when she returned my manuscript to me, it was with the urging to consider approaching a literary agent. I sent off my manuscript to stellar literary agent, Selwa Anthony, in early 2020 and was elated when she took me on as one of her writers! My manuscript went out on submission shortly afterward as Those Hamilton Sisters, and I was offered a two-book deal with the wonderful Echo Publishing and Bonnier Books UK, a few weeks later. My publisher, Tegan Morrison, and the incredibly talented team who have worked to perfect, market and publicise my novel, have made this experience such a joy from start to finish!

3. What is your writing routine? (Do you have a desk? A view from your window? A particular time you feel you can write best?)

My writing routine has always had to fit around my four children. When they were very young, I wrote while they napped (often holding a sleeping baby), rose before dawn to write or worked late into the night after their bedtime. After my youngest started school in 2020, and I signed a two-book contract, I established a strict work routine during school hours. I protect my working hours as much as possible, because other obligations can quickly encroach. My day begins early. I try to be up by 5:30am to fit in a run, or do my ‘Morning Pages’ – a type of creative journaling – before the kids are awake. Once I’ve got my children to school, I set to work! I have a MacBook, so I write/edit wherever I can find privacy, quiet, and a comfy seat. Usually by a large window overlooking the rainforest behind our house. Magnificent tropical butterflies come through our garden all day, which is endlessly inspiring.

Writing requires copious cups of tea, soft music, lovely perfume, and something sweet to nibble. If I am stuck in the Mum Taxi, waiting on a child, I’ll try to catch up on some writing/editing there. I struggle to write at night now that my children are older, because the days are much longer. Before I can do any writing, however, I need to have spent enough time ‘dreaming’ first. I find walking, riding and running in nature a most effective tool for stirring creativity – it’s the combination of physical movement and inspirational beauty.

4. Those Hamilton Sisters is your debut book, can you tell Suffolk readers a bit about it?

I’d love to! Those Hamilton Sisters opens in 1955, with a steam train rolling into the lush, tropical hamlet of Noah Vale in Far North Queensland, Australia. Three red-haired sisters step down onto the train platform – Sonnet, Fable and Novella, called ‘Plum’. The sisters have come to their outcast, unwed mother’s birth place in the wake of her death. Noah Vale is town they’ve never visited before, and home to family they’ve never met. Initially, Noah Vale seems like a tropical paradise where a brand-new life might be possible, but the sisters soon discover that their mother, Esther Hamilton, had a scandalous past in this tiny community, and grudges here go a long way back. Headstrong Sonnet, the eldest, is determined to raise the younger sisters in her own way – despite the best intentions of her aunt, Olive – and Sonnet will clash with many conservative members of the town. Middle sister, Fable, as beautiful as her mother once was, is a dreamer, artist, and secret keeper. She will bear the brunt of community prejudice as she grows up, and when she falls in love with Noah Vale’s golden boy, history seems destined to repeat itself. And finally, Plum is a little more than a toddler, just yearning for a mother to love her.

Over the next decade, the Hamilton Sisters will grow up, fall in love, stand their ground, and pursue their own aspirations. Those Hamilton Sisters is a coming-of-age story about sisterhood, secrets, belonging, and finding your own place in the world…

5. How did the idea of the sisters come together? Were they based on anyone?

Those Hamilton Sisters was first born over fifteen years ago. I was just a new mother myself when, seemingly out of the blue, the characters of Sonnet, Fable and Plum were ‘given’ to me by their mother, Esther Hamilton. I felt that I had been asked to look after these lovely, orphaned sisters, and the story took off from there. I sat down, holding my newborn baby in my arms, and began to write out the first chapter in a hardcover journal. Over the years to follow, the girls led me in their growing up. Although I knew the ultimate ending from the beginning, I was open to whatever direction Sonnet, Fable and Plum wanted to take in getting there. They are very much fictional girls, but each embodies aspects I treasure in myself and others: Sonnet’s indomitable strength and determination, Fable’s dreaming, artistic heart, and Plum’s resilience and perceptiveness.

6. Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

Absolutely! My second book is currently in the structural edit phase and will be published in 2022. Once again it is historical fiction set in a magical region of Far North Queensland, and features gutsy, spirited women solving a dark mystery together. Whereas Those Hamilton Sisters deals with small town judgement, my second novel centres on community spirit and camaraderie. It is a story about strong female friendship, love, juicy family dynamics, going after your own happiness, and most of all: courage found in deep waters. My second novel has more thriller elements than the first, which I loved tackling, with a whole new cast of colourful characters to love!

7. What is the best thing about being a published author?

It would have to be seeing my book on real life shelves in book stores and libraries across Australia – and now the world! – plus all the beautiful letters and messages I have received from readers who’ve fallen in love with my novel. Booksellers, librarians and readers have made this experience a dream come true!

8. Is there a book you have read that has changed your life or made you think differently?

My mum gave me Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott when I was a teenager – and it remains my favourite book on writing to this day. At the heart of this beautiful book, which is as much about life as writing, we find the moving encouragement to just get started, and simply take it bird by bird.

9. Describe yourself in three words.

Determined. Dreamer. Lover.

10. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

Here’s a quirky fact I adore: I share my name with Anne Shirley’s heroine in her very first published story: Averil’s Atonement. Given Anne’s penchant for romantic names, it has always thrilled me that my favourite fictional heroine chose my name! This Averil does love baking, too…