- Annette Young first wrote A Distant Prospect as an academic exercise while studying literature.
- After marriage and four boys, she took up the draft and rewrote it, now with a mother’s life experience, and published on 8 December 2012.
- By Violence Unavenged is set for 24 May 2019 release.
(The following is from Trish Bogan’s Aurora article of September 2014:)
Most of Annette’s youth was lived on Sydney’s north shore. She did not always enjoy school and “invented imaginary friends as a way of surviving”. She had already developed a love of classical music, “but there was nobody to share it with and that was heartbreakingly lonely”.
When she was 18, Annette converted to Catholicism. She found her new faith answered many of the problems she had been grappling with. “I wanted a way of living my life; I wanted explanations.”
Annette attended Sydney University, earned an Honours History Degree, and began teaching for several years. She enjoyed the experience but became unsettled. “It was a real crossroads point of my life.” She returned to university.
While in her 30s, Annette undertook her PhD in English Literature. During this time she wrote the first draft of A Distant Prospect over six months. “I found it incredibly cathartic. It’s extraordinary what things started coming out when you are forced to put yourself into words.
“At the end of this period, I realised how important music was to me.” Annette had studied music from the age of six. “It has been my saving grace.”
What followed was a notable time in Annette’s life. She completed her PhD and finally pursued her music career. “I’m a pianist. I started teaching piano and running a studio, and took up the cello.”
Annette and Francis married in 2002 and as their sons arrived, she decided to complete the book largely written 17 years earlier. “I sat down and re-wrote it. It is amazing what marriage and children do to your perspective.” Annette firmly believes that when you write, you address the big questions from your own life.
Subsequent drafts saw major changes to the story with new individuals added and different plot developments due to the maturity and lived experience Annette had undergone since first writing the book.
• Inspired by literature, motherhood, and plastic dolphins
Annette’s next book is By Violence Unavenged, Volume One of a trilogy called In the Hearts of Kings, and due for 24 May 2019 release. Preorders have opened.
She is currently writing the rest of the trilogy, Outside Heaven’s Sway, and A Balanced Wheel.
And there is a children’s illustrated storybook planned in due course.
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