INSPIRATION can be hard to come by for a writer, so when British expat Sara Foster found it in Perth, she followed it.
The former freelance book editor said WA was where the idea for her debut novel Come Back to Me, released on February 1, first came to her.
“I was working as a fiction editor at Harper Collins in the United Kingdom, and I realised that I would rather have been on the other side of the desk so I started to write again,” she said.
“While on holiday in Perth in 2003, I read an article about a tragic event in the paper that got me thinking about the repercussions on the lives of the people involved.”
With her husband, she moved to Perth in 2004, where over three years, she completed the book, which tells the story of a chance meeting that turns the lives of former lovers upside down and exposes a tragedy with hidden repercussions.
“Love triangles, of which there are two in the book, are a timeless theme in stories, but often you can take someone’s side, and I wanted to write about a complex situation where there really weren’t heroes or villains, just believable people struggling with difficult choices and their consequences,” she said.
“I am intrigued by how people cope with really tough human dilemmas, and how that resonates through their lives.”
Foster’s next project will be released next year as part of a two-book deal with Random House Australia. It has all the makings of a best-seller, covering “love and relationships, tragedy and mystery”.
With most of the work on that book done, Foster said she was looking forward to a guest stint at the Perth Writers’ Festival next month, where she will lead an editing workshop, drawing on her experience at major publishing houses in Australia and the UK.
She offered some advice for aspiring authors, saying the challenge of being published was well worth it.
“Be determined, persistent and pursue relentlessly – don’t give up because one door closes,” she said.