Story ideas are elusive. They usually sneak up on me, a little idea here, another there, until one day I have a number of characters, a gestational plot and some themes flitting about in my head.
In the case of The Heirloom, I began thinking I’d like to write a story about a ‘witch’ but not one set during a historical witch hunt, nor one steeped in big magic, more the everyday kind of historical wise woman who finds herself mired in trouble. The setting snuck up on me during research when I found that Sussex had a long history of ‘witchery’, but no one had ever been executed for it. The fact that some of my distant ancestors hailed from there added to the allure. And somehow a little family secret about one ancestor marrying her deceased husband’s nephew inspired another story thread.
A week driving about East and West Sussex researching the locations, architecture and countryside provided plenty of research material once I returned home to Australia. I pored over maps and photographs I had taken, especially those from a visit to the Weald and Downland Living Museum near Chichester. This reconstructed village helped me picture the cottage where my main character, Philadelphia grew up, and the garden she and her mother Susanna tended.
For the Queensland settings, I lived in Brisbane as a child and have spent many holidays there since. The Brisbane River is a powerful presence throughout the city, winding through its suburbs. And the architecture is quite different to other Australian capitals. The landscape of the granite belt in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales where parts of the story are set is rugged and would have been quite forbidding for those first Europeans who came that way.
As well as her sideline as a wise woman, I gave Philadelphia a more respectable trade as a milliner. Two hundred years ago, clothing was handmade and hats were obligatory. Many women worked in this field, including several generations of my ancestors. And one of the joys of writing historical fiction is researching my characters’ wardrobes!
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JULIE BROOKS 
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