Author Interview with Léonie Kelsall

Léonie Kelsall is an Aussie author who writes heartfelt stories set in the bush, bringing rural Australia to life with real, relatable characters. Growing up in the Murraylands, she knows country life inside out, and her books capture both the beauty of the land and the challenges of the people who live there. Her latest novel, Wings Above the Mallee, is about resilience, hope, and finding light in the darkest moments. With a background in counselling, Léonie weaves big emotions into her stories, balancing the tough stuff with warmth, humour, and plenty of heart.

1. Your books beautifully capture the heart and soul of rural Australia. What is it
about rural settings, like the Mallee, that inspire your storytelling?

Having travelled widely, both overseas and doing the ‘Big Lap’ around Australia twice,
along with thousands of kilometres of road trips every year, I have a deep love for our
country, and in particular for South Australia. There is nothing in the world to match it,
and the characters that inhabit this land are as varied, rugged, lush and colourful as the
landscape itself. It’s a challenge and a joy to try to capture that in a book so that I can
share it with readers who can’t take to the road themselves.
Rural settings, like the Mallee, offer a unique canvas for storytelling because they’re
both visually striking and deeply connected to the human experience. The vast, open
landscapes of the Mallee, with its harsh beauty and sense of isolation, bring a particular
richness to the stories I tell. There’s something about the way people live in both close
communion and combat with the land that adds layers of complexity to their lives, often
pushing them to confront both personal and external challenges. I think it’s a case of the very ordinary actually being extraordinary, and that’s what I try to convey to readers.

2. In your latest book, Wings Above the Mallee, can you tell us about the inspiration behind this story and the themes you wanted to explore?

Readers who follow me on social media will be familiar with my (very demanding!)
youngest daughter/road trip companion/all-round-offsider, known online as The Kid.
About three years ago, she said she wanted a story about a female pilot - however, a
couple of my colleagues were set to bring out stories featuring an aviatrix, so I shelved
the thought for a while. Both my father and brother are recreational pilots, and Dad often speaks of the freedom, both mental and physical, that he experiences in the air…so when the character of Amelia came to me, I realised that piloting a light aircraft would be the perfect metaphor for her escaping the tragedy in her life.

The main characters, Amelia and Heath, come from very different worlds, and I wanted
to explore how hope and vulnerability affected each.  Hope is a universal emotion:
without it, we are lost. Yet when we are most vulnerable, it is hard to allow ourselves
the luxury of imagining—hoping--that life may one day get better. Amelia and Heath
each remind the other, in their darkest moments, that despair can not be allowed to
prevail. Their love story grows organically, with each providing a safe harbour for the
other’s despair and dreams.

Heath’s teenage daughter, Charlee, is dealing with the complexities of being thrust into
adulthood whilst mourning the loss of a parent, compounded by her guilt at the way in
which her mother died. Turning to drugs to deal with her emotions, she must then also
fight the demons of addiction as her character explores the need to forgive oneself
before being able to move forward.
As a professional counsellor, I’m intrigued by the complexity and resilience of human
nature, the fact that those who suffer most often develop the ability to seek out and
appreciate the smallest of joys, and I wanted the story to reflect this very human quality.

3. As an experienced author, what’s been the most rewarding feedback you’ve received from a reader?

Whilst it’s always absolutely lovely to hear from the readers who declare one of my stories their ‘favourite book ever’, or tell me they stayed up all night to read – or, in the case of one reader, almost missed her flight because she was so absorbed in the story she didn’t hear the boarding call – there’s a totally different and possibly even more gratifying aspect to interaction with readers. As each of my stories tends to weave in a darker societal issue or side of life – child abandonment, poverty, grief, arson, unplanned pregnancy, domestic violence, dementia, divorce, homelessness – I find readers who have been affected often reach out to me to say that they feel “seen”.

Probably the most humbling feedback has been from two women who were in domestic violence situations and contacted me individually to say they felt that my story had ‘normalised’ their situation, in that they no longer felt the subject was taboo, and that had removed some of the stigma and lessened their sense of isolation.

4. How do you balance the emotional depth of your stories with lighter, uplifting
moments? Is it something that comes naturally to your process?

Life is a blend of joy and sorrow, triumph and struggle, and I try to reflect that truth in my stories. Even in the midst of hardship, there are moments of lightness, humour, and
connection that offer relief and hope. It’s part of the human experience to find pockets of grace, even in difficult times, and I think that’s what makes stories feel real and relatable.

As for how it fits into my writing process, I think it comes down to the characters. They
often drive the tone of a scene. Even when they’re facing adversity, their personalities,
relationships, and small acts of kindness or humour can inject moments of levity.

Whether it’s a shared laugh or an unexpected moment of beauty, those lighter moments help to humanise the characters and give the reader space to breathe, creating a balance that makes the emotional weight more poignant and the uplifting moments more earned. It's not something I force, but rather something that emerges naturally from the way the story unfolds.

5. Can you give us a sneak peek into what’s next for you? Do you have another story in the works?

I can indeed! I write two to three books ahead of the latest release, so whilst Wings Above the Mallee has just hit the shelves for readers, I’ve already had a sneak peek at the cover of The Path Through The Coojong Trees, which is being typeset, The Ironbark
Chambers is with my publisher to see if they like it (fingers crossed!!), and I’m an eighth of the way into The Windmill in the Silver Gums. Each of these stories is set in the fictional town of Settlers Bridge, so readers will get to visit again with familiar and loved characters, along with meeting some newcomers to the district.