Inspiration for One Moment at Sunrise - written by Karen Aldous
My inspiration
for writing was originally just enjoying moving my pencil or pen as a child,
This novel was
conceived on arrival at a traditional double-fronted French villa, blue
shutters, a central sweeping staircase, cool marble flooring, high ceilings,
contemporary décor with tasteful furnishings, French doors leading to a
vine-covered terrace and the crystal-clear waters of a pool and overlooking the
most magnificent canal ever built! This
was the moment the inspiration struck. My character appeared before my eyes;
wheeling a bike in through metal gates, her cheeks pink, her forehead etched
with an inscrutable frown as her head hung low. As she peered around the
echoing walls inside her home, her eyes appeared hostile, lacklustre, and her
mouth sloping downwards. Why? She lived in this stunning villa, had a gorgeous
little girl, and her man - so what was wrong? Why was she so swarmed in
darkness?
Cycling under
dappled light of the trees, along gently rippling waters and admiring the
ripening vineyards bursting with fruit under a Mediterranean sun, I listened to
Evie as I cycled along the Canal-du-Midi. Her voice revealed what was troubling
her and I immediately fell in love with her and sympathised with her situation.
Frequently, I would stop on the banks of the canal to open my pad so that her
words and my thoughts could tumble on to the page; her story gradually
deepening and at the same time, ideas forming. The setting provided such an
abundance of inspiration and although my real villa wasn’t beside the Canal du
Midi, it was actually in a village several kilometres away, it was fitting that
Evie lived and breathed the canal and to set her story there.
It was after a
visit to Bezier and seeing the statue of Jean-Paul Riquet that further stimulus
encouraged me. I began to explore the
man, the visionary and the history of the Canal-du-Midi in more depth. From a
snippet I read, I found my character had more in common with some of the
canal’s past characters too. From my research, I discovered just how
instrumental Pyrenean peasant women were in building this monumental canal and
I was moved by the fact that they failed to ever receive recognition for their
contribution. So not only did I have Evie’s story, I felt I also had their
story which had to be told and so I developed the plot to include them.
This blend of
past and present gives me such a stir because the common theme is
disempowerment; strong, intelligent women who had so much capacity and talent
as individuals becoming so overruled, isolated and quite possibly like Evie,
immersed in a self-fulfilling prophecy of self-doubt. We can never know how
these peasant women felt about their names eradicated from the payroll four
hundred years ago, but we can help bring their story out for further
discussion, and praise.
One of the
reasons I love being a fiction writer is because anything is possible; if it
doesn’t exist, you can invent it, if you need to find out more, you research,
then you can explore. My job is to make it real for the reader. I let my
characters speak to me, tell me their problems, then I can help them and discover
something unique or at least interesting for the readers. Like many of my
contemporaries, writers of women’s fiction, my motivation for my characters, is
not just about finding romance and living happy ever after, I wish my
characters to travel the journey, discover something about themselves as well
as others and the world around them so they become strong independent women who
find fulfilment in some form for themselves.
Karen’s books published by CarinaUK/Harper Collins are
available on Amazon:
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Twitter: KarenAldous_
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