Louise Wolhunter on ‘An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb’
Perth-based author Louise Wolhunter started making notes for her debut novel in 1996; in December 2022 An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb will be published by Ultimo Press. Reviewer Joanne Shiells says the plot twists keep coming in this rural mystery, which is engrossing ‘for the depth with which the characters are drawn and linger in our sentiments’. Shiells spoke to the author.
Twenty-five years is a long time to spend on one project. What made you want to start writing the novel and how did your motivation and attitudes towards this book (and writing in general) change over this time?
To be fair, I haven’t spent 25 years working on An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb, but I did write the original version 25 years ago. I always felt that I’d go back to it, but life gets in the way of things, doesn’t it?
I was better motivated the second time around, with a plan firmer than ‘give it a go’. I also had a deeper understanding of the characters—they’re much richer versions of themselves. I enjoyed unravelling the narrative much more the second time round. I think I ran with the ball a bit the first time. Though the story in its essence is the same, they really are two different novels.
The characters are so well drawn. To what extent did they benefit from having time to keep fleshing them out, and were they imagined or inspired by reality?
Thank you! You write in the dark and you don’t know how your characters are going to be received—how credible, how engaging (I know they’re not all likeable). As a younger woman, I was much more self-conscious and focused on excusing a character’s behaviour rather than getting stuck into how they could or why they would, so that’s something that benefitted from being left to stew.
For the most part they’re imagined, but there is a smudge of someone else in Meg and in Lily.
How did you know when the novel was finished?
When I could read it without wanting to rewrite bits, it was done.
Can you tell us the story of how it came to be published by Ultimo?
How do you eat an elephant? You cut it into steaks. That was my plan, so I didn’t research the publishing side of things at all until I was finished writing. I sent it to a couple of publishers who accept unsolicited submissions and heard nothing. Then I looked into getting an agent, made a wish list and approached my top two, and one of those was Sarah McKenzie who signed me up. It was Sarah who introduced me to Ultimo.
We had an hour-long Zoom meeting with [Ultimo publishing director] Robert Watkins before they offered me a contract and I don’t know if that’s typical, but the whole process from then on has been that personal, and I couldn’t be happier with where I am and who I’m with.
What project are you working on next?
I am pretty close to winding up my second novel, set in part on the Gascoyne Coast of WA (where I’m writing this actually, on a bench in the dunes). It’s about a woman looking back on a childhood that might not have been all she thought it was at the time. (How could they? Why would they?)
What was the last book you read and loved, and why?
Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy (Ultimo), for its sense of time and place—the light, the cold, the toil. I absolutely loved it.
