Adele Jones asked Ruth Bonetti:

Your memoirs span multiple generations and nations. When bringing together these multi-dimensional works, how did the shape and feel these stories change throughout the creative process? Or did your original vision persist largely in its original form throughout the development process?

Ruth Bonetti Interesting question, thank you, Adele. It was a challenge to structure diverse time-frames, cultures and hemispheres without losing readers in the oceans between! At first I resisted being a "character" in the story until I realised my discovery of the stories would become a unifying thread. This became more fun when I embraced magical realism. My "conversations" freed me to discuss with, even gently interrogate my deceased relatives! If I didn't have proof that one was involved in a certain event, I could pose the question, but leave it dangling unanswered. It touched my heart to put myself into the shoes of my great grandmother especially and imagine her pain to lose fo many offspring to the other side of the world or to early graves. S my original form developed new depths and resonances.

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