This is a historical novel of the hope borne of the suffragette movement and the changing roles for women. It is told in three parts: The Beginning, The New Beginning and Tomorrow.
In The Beginning Ruby Pearl Hart is born in 1910 to a mother (Alma) who dies in childbirth and a father (Douglas) who is emotionally incapable of loving his daughter. To make matters worse, Ruby is born with a raspberry birthmark that covers her right eye and cheek. Initially she is raised by the staff in her grandmother’s home but after a series of intentionally cruel ‘medical’ efforts to remove the mark from Ruby’s face she is rescued by her Aunt Minerva. She is a much-loved child in a makeshift family of her aunt’s artistic friends.
Ruby becomes a boarder at Merrington Catholic College where over the years of her enrolment she becomes a star pupil, much loved by the teachers and nuns who run the school. She makes friends with all the girls who see her for the wonder she is, not the girl with raspberry birthmark. In the final years of school, she befriends the mysterious Della de Guise who as a child escaped Belgium after the Sack of Louvain.
The world is full of possibility for Ruby who thinks she would like to be a writer, a scientist, an Olympic swimmer, even a doctor. In the 1920s these girls are reaching out, beyond the confines of gender. But an incident at the Spring Ball brings the world crashing down, both in real terms and certainly psychologically for Ruby, Della and their friends.
In The New Beginning Ruby is initially bitter and sad as she commences life in Launceston. The Duck Reach Power Station is situated out of the town in a hilly area known as The Gorge. But The Gorge is not a wilderness. Gardens have been established, music rotundas and a tearoom have been built in the floral oasis carved into the Australian bush. It is here she meets an artist, Lawton Timblett. Lawton and his friends have established a literary salon they call The Aphorism Club. Ruby is invited to join the rather bohemian and socially questionable group. Her real education begins here.
One of the writers, a playwright, Maxine Whitlock, helps Ruby get a job as a junior at the Launceston Examiner newspaper. Along with rather wispy stories for women, Maxine also investigates and writes about the fallen women of Launceston, and the fate of unmarried mothers; some as young as 14.
Ruby begins to write stories too. She also falls in love with Lawton and has a sexual awakening that features in some of the narratives she writes.
In the third part of the story, And Tomorrow, Ruby finds herself in the unprecedented position of having a choice.
Ruby finds self-determination a mystery, almost terrifying, but she is determined not to squander the opportunity to become the woman she always wanted to be. Educated and independent, and loved.
Historical, Literary, Australian Women, Coming of Age
About The Author
I grew up in the regional city of Launceston in Tasmania. It was a working-class background but my parents loved books and storytelling, so it was a very language enriched life. I learned early to love crafting a good story.
After graduating from university I started a very rewarding teaching career that has spanned 38 years. I am an English/Behavioural Science teacher who has taught in Tasmania, Western Australia, Canberra and most recently in New South Wales.
I have always written; from about the age of eight. My creative life started with some fairly awful poetry and misguided prose. Adolescence provided enough self-consciousness for me to abandon writing for a while. But it was always something in the back of mind to do.
In 1994, along with some very good friends, I became a founding member of a writing group called The Aphorism Club. We published an anthology of our work in 1999 in which three of my short stories appear. The group and the work explored during those years remain an important part of my development as a fiction writer.
In 2005 I completed a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Canberra. Both my teaching and writing is influenced by an appreciation of what motivates human behaviour; what maintains equilibrium and how we cope with the disturbances that threaten that balance. I predominantly write fiction for an adult audience that reflects on ordinary people responding to extraordinary events.
I’ve published three novels in my series, The Lily O’Hara Mystery Series. What Remains, Wither and the most recent Welter with Canberra publisher Shooting Star. The 4th is underway with a 5th planned. The first stand alone novel is called The Aphorism Club which is set in Melbourne and Launceston.
Since retiring from the classroom I have been able to run several writing sessions at the local libraries, joined the Eurobodalla Writers Group and hosted local panel discussions for International Women’s Day and Crime Writers of the Eurobodalla and been a judge for the Mayor’s Writing Competition.
Website: https://www.traceyplee.com
