Danielle Murray had never had any reason or desire to leave her home. Born and raised in French Canada, Danielle had everything she needed - a thriving job in marketing, a ‘nice’ apartment in Montreal near the St Lawrence River and her friends and family nearby “I loved my city and my little corner of the world.”
“Having said that, I hadn’t met a man I could love, and I was wanting that too” The life she describes as when ‘just fine before’ all changed when she met the man who would become her husband - a ‘farm boy’ from rural New Zealand
Without realising it, the beginnings of her novel ‘Two Questions’ sparked here. Danielle was faced with the reality of having to leave to her home to follow love in a country she had spent no more than three hours in on a stopover from Australia. Due to her lifelong passion for writing, Danielle turned to literature for guidance.
However the research results were lacking as “there were plenty of memoirs on following your heart to another country, but I didn’t want to know about individual stories - I wanted to know about the experience itself.
This lead to an interest in World War II Brides “I found it particularly interesting that most books I found it particularly interesting that most books or news articles would concentrate on the romance before the marriage and migration and not the reality afterwards.”
Danielle says some of these War Brides never returned home or saw their family again. She was curious as to why there was no mention to whether any of these women had mixed feelings about their new lives “I decided to find out myself and what I learned was fascinating.”
“I interviewed about 50 War Brides, and many of those women regretted their decision to leave home and country for another – especially when the marriage fell apart, and many did – then what?”
As it goes, Danielle would not go on to write her book for another 25 years. In between this time, she had three children and dabbled in freelance journalism “I have always loved to write….When I moved to rural New Zealand, I quickly realised I could not work in Marketing and so decided to try my hand at journalism. I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘journalism career’, but it’s been fun.”
As the years passed, Danielle continued to be fascinated with international marriages and the experience of foreign wives. It became apparent to Danielle earning a living through her freelancing was becoming more and more difficult. “Newspapers were disappearing and pay rates were falling over the years...When I was offered no payment at all for a major feature in one of Canada’s most respected newspapers, I decided that’s it, I’m done.” This was Danielle’s ‘turning point’ - “I decided it’s time to try something different, maybe write that book I’ve talked about for the last twenty years.”
Though the book may seem like her story, Danielle says it is actually based on the experiences of over 300 foreign wives that she had interviewed over the years. The book even includes ‘tidbits’ from historical women who famously had foreign marriages - such as Marie Antoinette, Wallis Simpson and Lady Randolph Churchill, the American-born mother of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Once the writing was finished, Danielle worked on finding a way to share her story. She tried several times to gain interest from a large scale publishing firm but explains this didn’t happen. “I console myself in the knowledge that this gives me artistic freedom. I think all of us want a big traditional publisher, so I’m not going to lie about that, but right now I actually want to see if I can make a go of it in on my own.”
Danielle went the route of self-publishing which means she has organised everything from proofreading to cover design. She paid for her manuscript to be assessed by a well known New Zealander, only to learn that his own mother had actually been an English War Bride.
Danielle then formatted her own book for Amazon Kindle and set the price for USD 2.99. She is also in the process of organising printed paperback copies. While a work of fiction, Danielle’s intention with ‘Two Questions’ is to inform other women who have moved or are considering moving for love the realities of the situation. Writing has always been a form of therapy for her, a necessary outlet. “Sometimes there are articles in my head just begging to be written... It's like sentences are spilling out of your head... in your sleep, during the day - and so you write.”
Despite this, when it came to 'Two Questions', Danielle says her writing was ‘not so much a need, but a want’. She felt the topic was not represented, and that anyone considering changing countries for love should be aware of what that means in both the short and long term.“I wanted that information available to me 25 years ago, and it wasn't.” Two Questions by Danielle Murray is available on Amazon for Kindle for author updates, please follow Danielle Murray - Two Questions
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