Interview of Bethany Loveridge by Haylee Hackenberg
Forgotten Australian history, time travel, spies, family drama, AND a whip-smart female protagonist? Harper Wells: Renegade Timeline Officer has it all. Much like its creator, Bethany Loveridge, Harper Wells is packed full of so much cleverness, it would be remiss of me to recommend it only for kids. Bethany’s debut middle-grade is a pacey, heartfelt story that grips the reader right from page one. I spoke to Bethany about her first novel, identity and under-represented history below.
Congratulations on your debut novel, Harper Wells: Renegade Timeline Officer. Like everyone else who’s had the pleasure of reading it, I’ve been captivated by the uniqueness of Harper and her time-travelling adventures. Are you able to tell me a little bit about how the idea for this series came about?
Why, thank you! The genesis of this series was a dream I had in May 2020, but actually, the seed that grew the dream was an article I read about the fantastic endemic-to-the-Blue-Mountains tree, the Wollemi Pine. No, I think the article was the fertiliser for the seed. The seed itself is the Blue Mountains – my favourite place in the world (I am done with the seed analogy now, I promise). I lived in the Blue Mountains for a little over a year, and I spent a lot of days walking through the bush, being a weirdo and touching trees and staring into caves and imagining I could see ancient treasures through the waterfalls. Yes, I’m that person. At the time, I was working at the Leura Fine Woodwork Gallery, polishing beautiful, handcrafted timber things and listening to Dire Straits and just letting my mind wander. I think I recall people visiting and asking for things made of Wollemi Pine, but at that stage, I’d never heard of it and would reply that Huon Pine was the superior pine (oh, I can smell it now).
Fast forward ten years, and I’m back in Queensland, and I stumble upon this article. The Wollemi Pine is our rarest tree and has an amazing story (highly recommend James Woodford’s, The Wollemi Pine: The Incredible Discovery of a Living Fossil from the Age of the Dinosaurs). The Wollemi disappeared from Australia’s fossil record like many sadly long-extinct species, but in 1994, a hiker stumbled into a deep, remote gorge in the Wollemi National Park and found Wollemi growing in the wild. They call it the dinosaur tree and a living fossil, and it’s also visually spectacular.
So, I read this article, and I go to bed. I should mention I have a three-month-old at this time. I’ve got that baby delirium going on, which, as you know, is as good (or bad) as any trip. In essence, I dream that the Wollemi are so prehistoric and eternal that they’re witness to all of time. When a clandestine timeline agency fashions a bed out of Wollemi Pine (but keeps the rest of the living tree pruned and ‘plugged into’ the earth), the bed allows the sleeper to access the past. Obviously, there are a ton of paradoxes and hurdles associated with time-travel, but that’s the basic science behind mine. I wake up and write 7000 words. They’re mostly awful, but they’re the beginning of something cool. Add a sprinkle of girl power, mystery and danger, and hey presto, the Wollemi Trilogy is born!
Historical fiction was one of my favourite ways to learn as a kid (in fact, it still is!). I really like that you’ve been able to weave in the story of Australia’s first female parliamentarian. Was it a conscious choice to tackle one of the lesser-known stories of Australia’s history?
I would just like to say that historical fiction was not my favourite way of learning as a kid. Maybe because I didn’t ever read any middle-grade historical fiction, and the picture books I can remember were the most boring ones of all. Instead, I would go to the library every school holiday, choose twenty books with red dragons on their spines (genre = fantasy), lug them home (heavy buggers) and devour them.
But to address your question … It might be clear from my previous answer that the story world appears first for me, which I think is reasonably unusual. Once I have a world, with an environment and rules and challenges, I tend to wonder who lives in the world, what they want and who or what is in their way. Because I already had a time-travelling set-up, I could choose to feature anyone in history or make someone up. Yes, I absolutely wanted to showcase undercelebrated historical Australian females. I know Edith Cowan is notable enough to be on our $50 banknote, but when I mention this fact to kids, they really have no idea. Edie was so cool, an advocate for social justice and a champion for education, for women and children, a breaker of glass ceilings. It’s been fun bringing her empathetic and beautiful self to life.
In the second story, Harper Wells travels back to meet Constance Stone, who is Australia’s first female medical doctor. In the third and final, she meets Jessie Hickman, a badass lady bushranger who hid out in the Wollemi National Park (like, it was meant to be). In my old (middle) age, I’ve become a bit of a nerd, and I probably describe my genre of choice as historical fantasy – history and magic. I hope my stories incidentally help some young readers learn about the women before us.
Harper Wells is aimed at a middle-grade audience, which is such a critical time in a child’s reading journey. We know that reading rates among kids start to drop dramatically between 8 and 12. What do you think we need to keep kids reading?
I am (not) sorry to say that if we want to keep our kids reading, the first thing we really need is to keep reading as adults. If you set an example as a reader, someone who chooses to pick up a book as entertainment – as the first thing in the morning or the last thing at night – your kids will be more likely to do the same. Secondly, I think kids need to have agency to choose their own books. There is every genre under the sun, and some kids (gasp) even prefer to read non-fiction, so even though I can’t think of anything more boring than a Steve Waugh memoir, it might be the book a particular kid really connects with. I recommend getting an epic variety of books from the library and just seeing what your kid gravitates to. They should also get to choose their format – picture books, graphic novels, audiobooks, illustrated junior fiction, hefty fantasy – it all counts. You could also do what I do and have physical books everywhere in your house. Sometimes, if they’re literally tripping over them, they can’t help but sit down and read.
The world-building in Harper Wells is so incredibly fun. If you could drop into the world of any book, where would you land?
Thank you! Sorry to be incredibly boring, but absolutely hands-down, I would go to Lothlórien (the tree city in the elven forest-realm in Middle-earth). I have an enduring fascination (obsession) with tree houses. And Tolkien. Hey, and you know what, the Wollemi Lucus sounds pretty great too!
Harper Wells: Renegade Timeline Officer is the first in a trilogy written by Bethany Loveridge and published by Wombat Books. You can find all things Bethany here.
