Christine?

I don't really have a favorite character.

That's a good question.

I don't think anyone's ever asked me that.

I don't have a favorite character.

I think a lot of the characters kind of exist to, well, they don't exist to do this, but the things that I kind of like about them or that make it a cozy mystery is the way that they are kind to or look after Freda or see her needs.

Because, you know, when you're a new mother, you're looking after a little baby and you're spending all your time looking after this new person.

it is so

Were there, you know, was there a reason that you wanted to kind of, include that in the book beyond the familiarity with that experience?

Yeah, I mean, I guess it was a little bit, I mean, it's not entirely based on my experiences, but I can definitely relate to some of it.

And it was actually when I had my second baby that I had a much more difficult time than my first, which came as a great shock because, you know, you're like, oh, no, I know what it's like to have a baby.

And then it turned out I didn't know at all.

And I guess, yeah, it was that and I think that's often the way with crime books that the sleuth has got a personal struggle as well that they're working through as well as the mystery.

And so that was just a very kind of natural personal struggle that she would be going through that I could relate to and I felt like I could write about in a,

Yeah.

I have a friend, Carla Pascoe-Leigh, who did a study of matriarchs and becoming a mother of Australian mothers.