It started with Sporky, a flying purple giraffe.Since she was 3, Annette Young has had imaginary friends, most of whom are human; and over the years, those friends have been her solace.
That they should make their way into novels, however, was unimaginable.
Annette first wanted to be an actor after she played Nancy in a school production of ‘Oliver!’ when aged 11.
But being a petite 5’2″ doesn’t always get you the parts you prefer. And Annette doesn’t always appreciate being told what to do. Besides, she prefers role playing in her head.
So, Annette made her imaginary world her life and began to write. That’s when her soul-searching found a voice. For, over the years, imaginary friends have not only been Annette’s means of retreat, they’ve been her means of problem solving, of understanding others, of healing the heart’s wounds.
For Annette, writing is life-transforming.
She wrote what eventually became ‘A Distant Prospect’ in 1996, following her grandmother’s death. She laid bare her troubles, her loves, and her dreams. Then she changed her life to fit her dreams, and later rewrote ‘A Distant Prospect’ which she published in 2012.
After ‘A Distant Prospect’, set in the 1920s, Annette began ‘In the Hearts of Kings’, which covers the 1930s and World War Two. Volume 1, ‘By Violence Unavenged’, is now complete, with publication scheduled for March 2019. In writing historical fiction, Annette tends to live more in 1938 than the present, but masters time travel quite well. Her family and non-imagined friends have learned to make allowances.
When she is not writing, Annette plays piano and violin. She also enjoys long walks, especially if a beach is involved. Her imaginary friends (that is, next novel’s characters) usually accompany her.
And wherever she might think she lives, be it Vienna, Paris, or Oxford, she actually lives in an increasingly messy and dilapidated house in Maitland NSW, Australia with her husband Francis and their four boys.