Valerie Massey Goree: Forever Under Blue Skies
Forever Under Blue Skies
The Story Behind the Story
Valerie Massey Goree
Have you ever fallen in love with a country or place you’ve never visited? I have. When my mother told me her mother was born in Australia, my love for a country that already intrigued me grew immeasurable. My childish fascination with kangaroos and koalas developed into more serious aspects of life. How long had my grandmother’s family lived there? Why did they immigrate to South Africa? So many questions that I didn’t ask at the time. My grandmother passed away before I was born, and no one in the extended family seemed interested in genealogical research.
Many years later, as a wife, mother, and teacher, I tried to compile a family tree—before the days of Ancestry.com. I questioned an aunt who had traveled to Australia for the 1956 Olympics. While there, Aunt Celia met a few relatives so was able to provide names and dates, and a little of the family history, but since she was close to eighty, her recollections were fuzzy.
However, her meager details piqued my curiosity. I wrote to the genealogical society in Melbourne, and over time received more information than I could have hoped for. The passenger manifest of a boat which sailed from Plymouth to Adelaide, Australia in 1863 indicated my great-grandfather was born while at sea. He had a total of fourteen siblings who settled in and around the mining town of Bendigo, Victoria, many working in the gold mines, as masons or farmers, or in the wool industry. My great-grand parents and several of his siblings left Australia in 1902 for South Africa when the gold and diamond mines were being developed there. My grandmother, Florence, was eleven at the time. That’s how she ended up in South Africa!
I cannot remember why I decided to write a novel set in Australia, except maybe my love for the country still existed deep-down. Way before everyone had a personal computer, I purchased a word processor and composed my masterpiece. I used some details of my grandmother’s story, read every library book I could find, and spent a long holiday with my husband in Australia where we met many relatives.
Forever Under Blue Skies is based on that first novel, and as you can imagine, is very close to my heart. My initial manuscript was soundly rejected. Ouch. I attended many writers’ conferences, read craft books, and after publishing five novels, returned to my book baby. I kept the basic premise, but revamped the plot.
Neither Florence nor any of her nieces or nephews lived on a sheep station, but that’s where the fiction part comes in.
What was life like on a sheep station in 1983? Follow Marlow’s journey to find out.
Bio:
American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award winner Valerie Massey Goree resides with her husband on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
After serving as missionaries in her home country of Zimbabwe and raising two children, Glenn and Valerie moved to Texas. She worked in the public school system for many years, focusing on students with special needs. Now retired in Washington, Valerie spends her time writing, and spoiling her grandchildren.
Novels include: Deceive Me Once; Colors of Deceit; The Stolen Lives Trilogy, Weep in the Night; Day of Reckoning; and Justice at Dawn, to be released soon. Valerie’s latest novel Forever Under Blue Skies, is now available from Amazon.
Valerie loves to hear from her readers.
Check Valerie’s website to learn more about her books: www.valeriegoreeauthor.com
Contact:
https://www.facebook.com/ValerieMasseyGoree/
Purchase link:
