The Drago Tree book tour
Isobel Blackthorn is a fellow Odyssey Books author and it is my pleasure to start off her book blog tour promoting her latest offering, The Drago Tree. In today's post, Isobel talks about how The Drago Tree came to be written...
Five years in the making, The Drago Tree is my second novel. I’d long wanted to write a story set on Lanzarote, after having lived there back in the 80s. I adored the island and was sad to leave. With my life now firmly in Australia, writing a story was the closest I could get to going back.
In 2009 I thought I’d try my hand at crime fiction. Back then I was a novice. I crafted a character that would later become the protagonist of The Drago Tree. I quickly gave up on crime after realising thousands of authors were doing a far better job than I could ever do.
Then I thought I’d write something literary and came up with one sentence.
Whatever I wrote after that initial sentence, I scrapped.
It wasn’t until late in 2012 that I set to work on The Drago Tree, and then only by chance. I’d written a short story about a woman alone in a haunted house, lost in the aftermath of a disastrous marriage. After I created the character of this woman, I recalled my earlier character in my never-to-be crime thriller. Amazingly, they were the same woman. It was then, as I trawled through an old notebook, that I found the initial sentence of my defunct literary effort.
Within minutes I’d conceived the story for The Drago Tree. Throughout the writing and the crafting and the polishing, the story contained a meant-to-be quality. Of course, now that it’s written and found it’s way between covers, I can only hope that others resonate with my words.
The Drago Tree
Haunted by demons past and present, geologist Ann Salter seeks sanctuary on the exotic island of Lanzarote. There she meets charismatic author Richard Parry and indigenous potter Domingo and together they explore the island.
Ann’s encounters with the island’s hidden treasures becomes a journey deep inside herself as she struggles to understand who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be.
Set against a panoramic backdrop of dramatic island landscapes and Spanish colonial history, The Drago Tree is an intriguing tale of betrayal, conquest and love in all its forms.
“This beautifully constructed novel
reveals the complexity we invite into our lives
when we open our hearts to passion.”
Robert Hillman, The Honey Thief
Isobel Blackthorn was born in London and has lived in Spain, Lanzarote, (Canary Islands), and Australia. She’s been a teacher, market trader, project manager and PA to a literary agent. Isobel received her PhD in Social Ecology in 2006. She now lives in rural New South Wales where she follows her passions for social justice, philosophy, current affairs, books and art.
Isobel is the author of a collection of short stories, All Because of You (Ginninderra Press), and the novel, Asylum (Odyssey Books). Her writing has appeared in e-journals in Australia and the US. Her second novel,The Drago Tree, will be released by Odyssey books on 1 October 2015.
