Australian author Sandie Docker has recently held a series of talks across Tasmania about her latest novel, The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir, which tells the story of three women – Eleanor, Maggie, and Hannah – who grapple with homelessness and forced adoption in contemporary Australia.
Docker told Tasmanian Times that she “always finds a novel is created out of more than one moment of inspiration”.
“For Lyrebird, the first spark was when I read an article saying the fastest growing demographic of homeless people in Australia are women in their 50s,” she said.
“This struck a real chord with me, and I wanted to explore, outside of circumstances people would maybe understand (like DV or addiction), how and why this is happening. And I realised how easily it could be me.”
The second spark of inspiration, she added, was the mystery of her grandmother’s daughter, whose fate remains unknown.
“Lyrebird is not my grandmother’s story,” she said.
“That is still a mystery – but over the years I have imagined many wild scenarios of how and why she might have come to Australia from England and one of those imaginings became Maggie and Eleanor’s story. Then the trick was to weave them together.”
To appropriately address homelessness and forced adoption in Lyrebird, Docker worked with Mission Australia to understand the homeless experience and listened to the “harrowing” first-hand stories of forced adoption victims.
“The statistics really shocked me,” she explained.
“In a first-world country like Australia, approximately 122,000 people sleep rough every night, and in 2023, three out of four of those were women and children. I wanted to explore the various and diverse reasons women find themselves in this vulnerable position, hopefully shining a light on just how easily it can happen to women we don’t necessarily think of as being at risk.”
Docker believes fiction is one of the most accessible ways for people to delve into these big issues.
“[They can] discuss them over coffee with friends, or at book clubs, in a way that is safe and easy,” she said.
“You don’t need to expose yourself when talking about fictional characters. In fiction, you can explore the issues in a way that is relatable and doesn’t feel like you’re being given a lesson.”
Writing with pen and paper
Docker, who was raised in Coffs Harbour, discovered her love for reading through her father’s fantasy books. She solidified her passion for fiction in high school and began her writing career after being encouraged to do so by a university lecturer.
The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir – published last month – is her sixth book.
She prefers to write with pen and paper but sometimes has to “hit the keyboard first” due to looming deadlines.
“But I always edit pen to paper,” she explained.
“I’m not sure I have a typical writing day – I’m more of a snatch-and-grab person when it comes to carving out time for writing. There are days I will be typing away for ten hours; other days I manage none. I definitely don’t pressure myself to ‘write x number of words every day’, as I know I will fail at that, and a failure mindset is not conducive to creativity. At least not for me. But when a deadline is due, I can be regimented – and of course, the house becomes a disaster zone.”
She revealed to Tasmanian Times that her next book is going to be a story with an empty nest theme, a dual timeline, and a secret in the past that impacts the present.
“I’ve just pitched [the] idea to my agent, and she loves it. I feel this one is going to be about ‘letting go’.”
Callum J. Jones studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania. He has written fiction and non-fiction for Tasmanian Times since 2018. He can be traced by the smell of fresh coffee.
Follow him on Twitter (@Callum_Jones_10) and Facebook (@callum.j.jones.creative).
