An effort to get his daughter interested in the family history was the catalyst for Bruce Mitchell's debut novel that has been set in 1840s Orange and following decades.
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Although Wide Sky People was only loosely-based on Mitchell's ancestors, it did inspire him as he followed the journey of the fictional Thornton family in their journey from Ireland to Sydney in 1841 and then over the Blue Mountains to Orange where they settled.
Wide Sky People is published by Austin Macauley of London, and tells the story of the men and women who saw a wide sky full of promise, and turned a colony into a country.
The story takes the reader on the mid-19th century journey of Mick and Cate Thornton and their two boys as they survive four months at sea to encounter false arrest, bushrangers, crooked cops, a devastating bushfire, as well as the gold rush.
Although he lives in Bowral in the Southern Highlands, Mr Mitchell chose to base his novel in Orange following the inspiration of his forebears for the novel, who also emigrated from Ireland to Orange at the same time.
"I have a daughter, she's 34, and I was trying to get her interested in her families history and of course at that age people are not really interested in that sort of stuff so I thought I would write her a story about when they arrived in Circular Quay in 1841," Mr Mitchell said.
"Then I kept on writing.
"My wife [Marilyn] was going through a bit of cancer about 18 months ago, a lot of the book was written with the laptop on my knees while she was getting chemotherapy."
Mrs Mitchell has since entered remission.
Wide Sky People is available at www.amazon.com.au in e-book and paperback format and online at Angus & Robertson and Booktopia.
Mr Mitchell's second book is also complete - a serial murder/thriller set in Sydney in 1879, titled Race the Madman. It has dead bodies, women's rights, racial tension, corruption, terrorism and martial arts.
Mr Mitchell retired from work eight years ago and previously worked as a labourer, copywriter, waiter, bookmaker who took bets, film maker, musician, consultant and a corporate director.
He also had a corporate business career with Coca-Cola and Brown-Forman, which make Jack Daniel's, that led him to work in South East Asia and New Zealand.
He has dallied with writing for some years - creating ads for frozen prawns and car tyres, scriptwriting for videos, and short stories for the entertainment of friends and family.
When not writing he plays drums with a band and exercises regularly.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
