“I think if you have got a creative side, it’s important to do something with it.”
Those are the words from Dawesville woman Karin Smale who spends her days working as a nurse and her spare time writing up a whole new world.
And in an effort she said even she struggles to believe, Ms Smale has finally released her first novel.
The contemporary fiction, ‘The Mirage Tree’, will be officially launched on December 15 after years of putting pen to paper to create the work.
The local author said it’s been quite a process to prioritise the time to achieve her dream of writing a complete novel.
“I work as a shift nurse and have done for 27 years, so it’s been quite challenging to get this far with it,” she said.
“It can also be hard to find creativity sometimes when you work all day with people and get tired.”
The book follows two sisters as they endure two very different paths.
Ms Smale said the women have to overcome some very big challenges in their lives.
“One is getting over a difficult past, her husband’s infidelity and some personal upset and she chooses the security of a more quiet life moving away from the city back home,” she said.
“The other is quite career driven, has a new boyfriend and is very certain of herself and wants to make her mark in the world but there are forces plotting against her trying to bring her down.
“They both have to work very hard to get where they’re going and they’ve got some tough lessons to learn.
“If you like family drama and a contemporary, modern-day fiction story then I’m hoping you would like this.”
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Inspired by authors Marian Keys and Jodi Picoult, Ms Smale said she’s always known she has had a flair for writing.
“I’ve been writing my whole life and English was one of my favourite subjects at school,” she said.
“I always knew I had the capacity and ability to write a book but I’d never actually knuckled down and put the dedication in to write the book.
“That was until I heard of NaNoWriMo which is the national novel writing month every November – I did it last year and I won with about 60,000 words so I finally had the bare bones of it all done and it just had to go off and be edited.”
Now that the creative juices are flowing and the first novel has been a success, Ms Smale said she is already working on her next book.
“It’s a big step for me and a big achievement for me and I’ve learnt a lot,” she said.
“I have started writing again – I hope it doesn’t take another five years or something.”
Karin Smale’s book ‘The Mirage Tree’ will be available on December 15 in paperback copy or e-book. For more information, visit her Facebook page.