Five Quick Questions with Maya Linnell
We recently met with bestselling author Maya Linnell to get all the hot gossip about her latest novel Kookaburra Cottage and her writing process.
In Kookaburra Cottage, April Lacey’s winery is going backwards fast, and she hopes a bed & breakfast will be her saving grace. With an ambitious fixer-upper project and staffing dilemmas on the horizon, April faces a rocky road ahead. British winemaker Connor Jamison is as uncomfortable in the kitchen as he is around livestock, but when he arrives in South Australia’s Limestone Coast, he’s plunged into the rural lifestyle. Can they transition Lacewing Estate into the food tourism industry, or will it be a recipe for disaster?
Kookaburra Cottage features South Australia’s famous wine region. What research did you do to get all the details just right?
I grew up in the Limestone Coast, so I’m lucky enough to know the region quite well. I discussed several plot points with a winemaking friend, watched documentaries and listened to podcasts on winemaking and, of course, sampled quite a few fabulous Coonawarra wines. There are so many gorgeous cellar doors and it was a pleasure to visit both pre and post-harvest; in summer, with a mass of greenery and bunches of grapes hanging off the vines, and then for wine tasting and cellar door tours in autumn, when the vineyards were a riot of yellow, red and gold.
What is your favourite moment in Kookaburra Cottage?
There are so many, but I’ll go with the beach camping scene around the halfway mark of the novel. The scene takes place in the beautiful Canunda National Park, near Beachport, and features surf fishing, a mischievous golden retriever, and a chilly mid-winter dip.
What is the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?
Remembering that there are all different kinds of sexy. When I’m first drafting a novel, my leading men all tend to be hard-working with calloused hands who couldn’t give a fig about fashion (a common theme for the blokes in my life!), so I must dig deep to add variety.
How do you choose the names of your characters?
Now that I’m five books in, I’ve almost exhausted the list of baby names I wanted to use for my own children, so now I keep a close eye on television show credits, newspaper articles and radio shows, and scribble down likely contenders in my notebook. My children also love helping me name the characters and their suggestions are quite fun!
What is your go-to snack when writing a novel?
I love homemade biscuits (and share lots of recipes on my blog!), Maltesers and corn chips. In a bind, I’ll resort to cooking chocolate or dry cornflakes.