Annie Seaton

Annie Seaton lives near the beach on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Her career and studies have spanned the education sector for most of her working life, including completing a Masters Degree in Education, and working as an academic research librarian, a high school principal and a university tutor until she took early retirement and fulfilled a lifelong dream of a full time writing career.

Each winter, Annie and her husband leave the beach to roam the remote areas of Australia for story ideas and research.

Annie’s Porter Sisters series is published in print in Australia and New Zealand and she is now published by Harper Collins in the Harlequin Mira imprint. Whitsunday Dawn was the first of these books, followed by Undara in 2019, and there are two more books to come …at least!

Annie also has many books published digitally internationally across many genres, as well as self-publishing in print. Several of her books are now available in audiobooks also.

You can find them in a convenient slideshow on her website: http://www.annieseaton.net

Readers can contact Annie through her Website, or find her on Facebook, and Instagram.

Awards:

• #1 bestselling author in Amazon Romance series
• Finalist… New Zealand KORU award 2019
• Winner… Whitsunday Dawn Book of the Year 2018 AUSROM
• Winner …Best Established Author of the Year 2017 AUSROM
• Long listed for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
• Finalist in Book of the Year, Long Romance, RWA Ruby awards 2016
• Winner …Best Established Author of the Year 2015 AUSROM
• Winner …Author of the Year 2014 AUSROM

Welcome Annie Seaton

Thank you for this opportunity to connect with you! Could you tell us a little more about yourself? What do you do when you are not writing?

I love to read (of course) and I spend a lot of time in my garden

They say our childhood imaginations and dreams show proof of our passions. As a child, what memories brought you joy?

Memories of our extended family, aunts, uncles and many cousins being together most weekends, watching chickens hatch at my grandparents’ house, and pulling fresh carrots from the vegetable garden. But I think it is the many books I remember reading as a child, that fired my desire to be a storyteller.

Inspiration for writing Undara

Undara was a page turner for me, beautifully written and I couldn’t get enough of it. Australia is home to many beautiful natural sceneries. Undara Lava Tubes is one of them, a natural wonder, beautifully located in the Gulf Savannah, in tropical North Queensland. It is definitely on my list of places to explore.

What inspired you to write your story? How much research did you put into the settings for Undara?

Undara was another location that I fell into accidentally … woops, am I giving away a part of the story there?

We were travelling along the Savannah Way and heading for the Daintree (in between the research for Daintree and Diamond Sky) and stopped at a caravan park for the night. We discovered that the park ran tours to Undara and signed up for one.

Wow! What an incredible amazing place that is not well known in Australia! The lava tubes are the result of a volcanic eruption over 130 million years ago. When the guide mentioned that many of the tubes have never been entered by humans and may house all sorts of undiscovered plants and species my story was born. Another book was on the way. I spent a few days in the area, researching the setting and taking many photographs. ON our return home, I contend my research online and in print books, including a wonderful history of the early settlement of the area, and scientific reports of the exploration of the tubes.

What message (theme or takeaway) would you want readers to embrace in your story?

Despite the tragedies and circumstances that we may find ourselves in, in our lives, the human spirit can survive. There is love, and there is hope. These life events take us on journeys of self-discovery.

What amazing experiences did you learn while writing Undara?

Exploring the tubes was incredible. One of the most memorable (and I saw this one on video is the scene from the book where the snakes caught the bats!

To their right a high ceiling of honeycombed grey rock rimmed the edge of the clearing. A pile of tumbled rocks rose in what looked to be a manmade cairn where the grey rock met the ground. High above them at least a dozen snakes hung from the intertwined branches high above them. As she watched, the milky bulbous eyes of a striped green snake looked back at Emlyn and she suppressed a shiver. A soft noise came from in front of them and the boys walked over to the rock cairn and looked up. Above them a large gap in the green canopy revealed a triangle of midnight blue clear sky. As Emlyn looked up, the noise became louder and suddenly with a huge whooshing sound the space filled with dozens, and then hundreds of small black bats as they flapped up to the open space and disappeared into the night.

Her eyes were wide as she took in the amazing spectacle, forgetting that she was with anyone else. Soon the space was full of bats and the snakes moved along the branches their forked tongues flicking in and out as they stretched for the bats in mid-flight.

What’s next for Annie Seaton

Is there a new book in the making? Could you share a little blurb or give us a hint on the story etc.

My next book with Harper Collins (2021) is a story set on the Great Barrier Reef:

From Australian author Annie Seaton comes a compulsive story of hidden agendas and turbulent seas, set against the glorious backdrop of the Great Barrier Reef.

Bethany Kristensen faces her toughest challenge to date: skippering the family’s charter boat business. After years of solo experience in the Gulf as the first female captain of a commercial fishing boat, this should have been a breeze. But with a rival charter company doing their utmost to undercut her prices and reputation the Kristensen’s business is in danger. Winning the tender for a new scientific research program headed out to the furthest edge of the reef is her last chance to keep the business going.

Determined to prove herself to the reticent and disapproving team leader, Peter Brooks, Beth pushes her boat and crew to the limit. But when vandalism turns to outright sabotage and things take a drastic turn, Beth will need to dig deeper than ever before to bring her crew home safely from the turbulent seas of the reef…

I am also self-publishing a ten-book series set on Pentecost Island. Book 1 Pippa is out and Book 2, Eliza is out on Tuesday. I am very excited!

What advice would you give anyone wanting to become a writer?

Persevere, follow your dream and don’t ever give up, no matter how dispirited you become.

Connect with Annie Seaton

Readers, Annie would love to hear from you. You can connect with her here.

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