Victoria Purman is a USA Today and Australia top ten best-selling historical fiction author who loves to tell the stories of the forgotten people – the mothers and wives, the wharfies and land girls and nurses who pitched in for their country during a war and then were forgotten when the peace came. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Victoria talks about her latest book, The Women’s Pages, reflects on the moment when she knew her time to write had come and tells us what she tells young writers who are just starting out and want to know how to do it. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: A start in romance served wellHistorical fiction first loveTelling overlooked storiesAdvice to young writers - don't do it aloneThe writers she admires mostWhat - if anything - she'd do differently second time around Where to find Victoria Purman: Website: https://www.victoriapurman.com/ Facebook: @VictoriaPurmanAuthor Twitter: @VictoriaPurman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/VictoriaPurmanauthor/ What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now, here’s Victoria. Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Victoria, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Victoria Purman: Hi Jenny, and hello Kiwis. Jenny Wheeler: You're in Adelaide if they can't already tell. Introducing Victoria Purman Victoria Purman: Yes. I'm sorry. My accent is probably very strong. Yes, I'm in Adelaide. It’s a very cold winter's day here for us. It's 10 degrees today, and raining. Author Victoria Purman Jenny Wheeler: Oh gosh, that is cold. You are a former journalist turned fiction author, and I know people always like to know the answer to this question. What made you change from nonfiction to fiction? Was there any moment of realization, an epiphany about it? Victoria Purman: There was for me actually. I started as a journalist in broadcast, I worked at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I had left mainstream journalism and worked as a media advisor and did all sorts of communications jobs, anyone who's a journo will know them. I wrote, I provided advice on how to deal with the media to a whole lot of people – government ministers and clients and departments and things like that. But I did have an epiphany. I call it my midlife crisis. I was in my late forties. I was about 47. My husband and I have three sons and anyone with more than one child, probably even one child, knows that your time's not really your own when they're little. But my youngest one had turned 12. They were 12, 15 and 18. Taking her chance to dream They don’t need you as much at that age and so I had time to reflect about the dream I had put away when I was 15 years old. I had always loved reading and I always wanted to be an author. I thought, if I don't take it seriously and start now, I might lose my chance. I was too old for the Miles Franklin, the Australian literary award. Not that I write literature, but I always thought, I'm going to enter the Miles Franklin. Then I got to the 35-year age cutoff and thought, well that's closed to me. I saw it as a ticking clock in a sense, so I decided I would sit down and write a book. Coincidentally, a really dear friend of mine got a job as the director of the SA Writers Center and that spurred me on too,
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