What drew you to the Klondike Gold Rush as the setting for a novel?
I‘ve always loved the scale and romance of a gold rush, where a life-changing fortune is
there for the taking, no matter who you are. I loved the idea that any person with the will
and the barest of equipment, could leave a millionaire. The Klondike in particular marries
that with the extraordinarily beautiful and dangerous landscape of the Yukon. It’s just such a great setting for a novel!
Were there any frontier novels that you drew inspiration from?
I read Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London when I was young which were
hugely influential to me as they are set during the Klondike Gold Rush. I also loved The
Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban, Blood Meridian by
Cormac McCarthy, Barkskins by Annie Proulx and so many more!
The characters of Kate, Ellen and Martha are based on real women who made their
mark on the Klondike Gold Rush, what was your research process like for The Rush?
I spent a lot of time searching library archives online for stories of these women and, in
Kate’s case, writings by the journalist she’s based on. But finding in-depth information
about them was tricky. Women’s stories at that time were largely overlooked and not
written about until long after the fact. I did find a great book by two women ‘adventurers’
who travelled to the Klondike expressly to write about it. What really helped were the
number of photographs taken during the gold rush. A few years prior, Kodak had released
their first portable film camera so dozens of journalists and photographers got one and
flooded into the Klondike to document it. That was such a wonderful resource because
reading about the conditions there was one thing but seeing them in photographs brought my understanding of the time to another level.
The 1890s Klondike is an unforgiving world, both in terms of the physical
environment and the lawless nature of the settlements, how do you think you would
have fared as an intrepid explorer on the hunt for gold?
I probably would have lasted a week and run away back to civilisation. I would have loved
the trek up there, all 600km of it. I love hiking and climbing, and I especially love rafting,
which is one of my favourite scenes in the book, but actually living in Dawson city would
have been pretty horrible. It was boom-and-bust, within a few years, the city grew from
300 to 30,000 people and then sharply dropped when gold was discovered on the beaches of Nome, Alaska. There were fires, scurvy, typhoid, all manner of dangerous individuals, I wouldn’t have wanted to stay there very long!
What’s your writing process and do you have any tips for aspiring authors?
I try to write regularly, usually 5-6 days a week. I find that consistency important to
maintain momentum on a book and stay in the story over the eight months or so it takes
me to write a novel, but I also still work full time so sometimes that routine slips. I am not
one to recommend writing every day, it’s exhausting, but if I was to give any advice to
aspiring authors it would be to make sure you finish your novel. An agent can sell half a
manuscript and you’ll need that discipline when it comes to the next book and the next
after that.
Can you tell us what’s next? Any hints for future books in the pipeline?
My next book with Viper will be my take on a traditional western. Homesteaders, sheriffs
and gun-toting outlaws. Even a train robbery. But as with THE RUSH, it’ll all be focused
on the women of the time, encompassing stories from real women who lived and fought
for their place in the new world.
