Today is publication day for House of Longing, which officially makes me a published novelist. Fancy that. It’s the dream I never truly allowed myself, because it meant too much to even hope for it.
House of Longing
We’ll get the blatant promotion out of the way first, shall we? As I just said (in far less mercenary terms), House of Longing is now available for purchase in paperback and eBook form in Australian and New Zealand, and as an eBook elsewhere in the world. That means you can go right out and buy it now—or ask your local library to get it in for you if they haven’t done so already. (Apart from the obvious fact that libraries are amazing, borrowing books from Australian libraries financially benefits authors, so never feel bad for doing so!) If you do read it and like it, please feel free to recommend it to everyone you encounter in your day-to-day life.
Warning: if you take the last line literally, people may start to think of you as That Weird Book Person.
If you’re reading this and have somehow managed to escape knowing what House of Longing is about before now, it’s a historical novel, set in 1890s Melbourne. The protagonist, Charlotte Ross, is unconventional for the time, in that she dreams of one day taking over the management of her father’s stationery store, instead of marrying and having children of her own. She is content with her quiet life, but then Flora Dalton walks through the shop door and Charlotte begins to dream of more than pens and books. But darker times await her, and she finds herself committed to Kew Lunatic Asylum, where she is forced to forge a new way forward.
House of Longing is for fans of queer historical fiction and of narratives focusing on friendship and the importance of community.
The Real Housewives of Kew Asylum
I wanted House of Longing to show that, despite the common assumption that asylums were homes for the unwanted, most patients came from loving families and returned to them upon leaving the asylum. This familial love was generally unconditional, regardless of the circumstances of a patient’s illness.
Esther H died in Kew Asylum (by then, called a Hospital for the Insane) in 1906. She had first entered the asylum system in 1880, when she was committed to Yarra Bend. A year later, she was transferred to Sunbury and, in 1883, she was moved to Kew, where she remained until her death.
Esther was suffering from syphilis, contracted through sex work, which she had used to support herself after she ‘left her family and took to the streets’. Despite being so long away from her family, however, Esther was not forgotten by them. On her death, her sister wrote to the medical superintended of Kew, saying:
‘I desire to thank you for your kindness in forwarding the photo of my late sister. It is the only memento I have of her and shall prize it highly.’
Even patients too ill to ever leave the asylum were loved, visited, and remembered.
The First Time Podcast
I chat about House of Longing and Victorian lunatic asylums on the most recent episode of The First Time, which dropped yesterday. You can listen to it through your usual podcast app, or just through the webpage: here.
Ramona Magazine
If you’re less about the audio and more about the text, you can also find an interview with me in Ramona Magazine. Freya Bennett asked some great questions about the novel, my research and the similarities between my own story and those of 19th century asylum patients.
ABC Radio
Back to audio for this interview with Jonathon Kendall for ABC radio’s Victorian Statewide Mornings, chatting about lunatic asylums, House of Longing and the process of converting historical research to fiction. I don’t think this link will stay up forever, but for now, you can listen via the ABC website. My segment starts at 1:21:20.
Out & About
Things have been hectic, but we did manage to catch up with my mother-in-law and doggo-in-law on Sunday. We had lunch in Yarragon, which is a lovely village in West Gippsland that my wife and I often frequent, not least for its fantastic antique shop and sweet shop. No antiques were bought (this time) but we did restock our supplies of Dutch liquorice. (Ephie is half Dutch, which basically means this counts as a cultural activity.)
Watching, Reading, Listening
I’m currently reading Time of Our Lives: Celebrating Older Women by Maggie Kirkman. I’ve not had a lot of reading time, as I’ve been using up my entire braining quotient on writing, but I’m enjoying dipping into this collection of biographies of fascinating women.
Our dinner-time TV viewing is still occupied partially by ‘Drag Race España’ s3 and ‘Drag Race Allstars’ s8. I’m more invested in España now, but not hugely excited by Allstars yet, although I’m enjoying seeing Jessica Wild again after all this time. We finished s3 of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ and my favourite from the very first episode won, which is a nice change. My new choice is the second season of ‘Clarkson’s Farm’. I loved the first season, so hopefully this one lives up to the high bar already set.
My go-to relaxing podcast continues to be My Favorite Murder but I’ve also been listening to a lot of The First Time—and not just my own episode, I should point out! I can justify the latter as work-related; the former not so much.
Paying the Cute Tax
Thank you for making it to the end! This week, your payment is a photo of the doggo-in-law, because it would be very cruel of me to mention her above and then not show you just how incredibly cute (and ridiculous) her ears are.
