For someone who once "never wanted to write a book", it was ultimately a journey of self-discovery that changed the now, bestselling author, Fiona McIntosh's mind. Oh, and a list.
While truly grateful and appreciative of her life, Fiona "woke up at the end of [her] thirties" and realised that she needed to chase her own dreams.
"I was someone's wife, someone's mother. I needed to be me again and do something for myself," she tells Mamamia.
So, she wrote a list – all the things she could do:
Go to Nepal and discover yourself.
Have a face lift.
Buy a fast car.
Have an affair.
"I didn't want to do any of those things," she laughs. So, she added one more dream.
"The last thing I wrote down was to write a book, and I knew that was the one."
Fiona began her professional writing journey by undertaking a Bryce Courtenay writing Masterclass – the course she now runs in her own name. It was during this that Courtenay said to Fiona, "you're already a writer, you just haven't written a book."
So, she did.
Fiona began her writing career in the fantasy realm, before expanding to other genres, including historical fiction where she has found enormous success.
And now 22 years into her career, after selling millions of books worldwide, Fiona has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
"I never looked back," she said.
Her upcoming historical fiction release, The Orphans, follows the book's heroine, Fleur Appleby, struggling to take control of the family's undertaking business after they die.
The book takes the reader on an evocative journey to historical Australia – you can hear the shears clipping and the flies buzzing as the book opens in the shearing sheds on the Flinders Ranges in the 1910s. You can feel the hustle and bustle of the cobbled streets of Adelaide in the 1930s.
This vivid sense of place has become a signature of her work – from the rich tea gardens of Darjeeling in The Tea Gardens to a picturesque hotel in Morocco in The Last Dance.
"It's always a place that inspires me. If I can find the right place, I can find the right story," she says.
To represent this sense of place accurately, Fiona visits every location she writes about.
"I immerse myself in the location. I put my feet on the ground and walk in the steps of each of my characters," she says.
While usually set in wild and exotic locations around the world, excitingly, The Orphans marks Fiona's first book based in Australia, with Flinders Ranges as its main backdrop.
"It just shocked me how beautiful the Flinders are, how remarkable they are. I made them a character in the book, they are very important to the story," she explains.
"I fell in love with my own landscape because I’d never taken enough notice of it before... I am really quite excited to deliver my first Australian story with my audience."
As well as visiting the vast Flinders Ranges area, and spending time in the main location of the book, a small town called Farina, she also took on the role of work experience mortician.
Spending time with the very team who had cared for her own dad who passed away before she began writing The Orphans, the experience allowed Fiona to ask questions and observe them as they worked.
In order to understand not only the career that her protagonist, Fleur, would perform but to represent it in a historically accurate way, Fiona also researched its origins and how it evolved.
The Orphans details the undertaking service, exclusively in helping women and children through death and grief. Reading the scenes set in the mortuary as Fleur tenderly treats and dresses the dead provides many interesting things to learn.
Arguably though, it is protagonist, Fleur, an unmarried woman and Australia's first ever female mortician (fictional) – a role that was unheard of for the time – that makes for one of the most exciting elements of the book.
A convention of Fiona's writing is these inherently strong female leads who are riling against the constraints and norms of the time, a choice that Fiona loves about her books but one that is not necessarily something she was conscious of in her decision making.
"I didn't know I was doing it but it's true," she says.
"I come from a very strong matriarchal line. Women who just got on with it," she adds, a factor which she believes was formative in her writing but also something she has learnt that her readers also appreciate.
"Women like to see strong women. Women who push back and question social conventions that weren't necessarily fair," she explains.
This signature character type has also found its way into another female in The Orphans, someone Fiona is particularly excited about, her antagonist.
"My villain is stupendous, she is so evil in a passive aggressive way," she says.
"I love writing a female villain."
And perhaps the most intriguing fact about the villain in The Orphans is that she is actually a fictionalised version of a real life woman.
"This woman was like this... an evil woman."
But at the heart of The Orphans, like The Champagne War and many of her other titles, is romance. This time between Fleur and Tom Catchlove, another orphan who she had met in passing as a child. It is a component of her book Fiona is sure will be adored by her readers.
Another element of Fiona's writing that has scored her legions of fans and will continue to attract more, is her versatility. Because following the release of The Orphans, Fiona has another book due out in January 2023. This one, though, is a crime fiction novel, Dead Tide, and features her series detective DCI Jack Hawksworth investigating the black market of human reproductive material.
Two unforgettable stories by one unforgettable author who has definitely now written a book (over 40 in fact).
The Orphans is published by Penguin Books Australia, and now available in all good bookstores.
Feature Image: Instagram/@fionamcintoshbooks