Today I’m delighted to welcome to my blog Imogen Martin, to talk about her latest book – An Ocean of Stars.
As a teenager, Imogen took the Greyhound bus from San Francisco to New York. Over those three days of staring out of the window at the majestic mountains and endless flat plains, stories wound themselves into her head: tales of brooding, charismatic men captivated by independent women.
Married with two children, Imogen divides her time between Wales and Sardinia.
Imogen, thank you for joining me today to talk about your new book ‘An Ocean of Stars’, would you like a drink and a cake. I’ve been watching MasterChef recently so can I interest you in a hazelnut and praline mille-feuille and maybe a coffee?
Boston, 1879. Phoebe Van Bergen has poured everything into the Van Bergen Women’s Hospital—her inheritance, her defiance, her desperate need to be more than society’s gilded ornament. Within its cramped wards, she matters.
Here, she is not the obedient fiancée of a man whose charm masks something darker. Here, she can breathe.
Then Dr. Douglas McLennan arrives from Scotland—brilliant, abrasive, and haunted by a loss so devastating he’s vowed never to love again. He dismisses Phoebe as a privileged do-gooder. She thinks him insufferably arrogant. Neither expects their clashes to become the most honest conversations of their lives.
But Phoebe is keeping secrets that could destroy her. And when Douglas becomes the one person who knows the truth—the shame she carries, the violence she’s survived—she knows he’s seen her at her most broken, and she might lose him forever.
When Phoebe finally breaks free of her engagement and travels to Scotland for a medical symposium, she never expects Douglas to be on the same journey—or for a catastrophic disaster on the Tay Bridge to strip away everything but what matters most. Faced with death, they must finally confront the question they’ve been running from: Is the risk of heartbreak worth the chance at being truly known?
Before we get started, Imogen, I should say that the father-in-law of my husband’s great uncle is Hugh Ryan. An Irish Catholic who emigrated to Canada and constructed approximately around 1,000 miles of Canada’s railways, along with major bridges and public works. He was a trustee of Toronto General Hospital, and he and his wife were both donors and responsible for the construction of a large wing at the St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto and all the equipment, four years before his death. So, I was totally engrossed by the Van Bergens’ story.
I’m fascinated by this personal connection. And it shows my stories are not totally outlandish!
But what first inspired your ideas for An Ocean of Stars?
Phoebe appears in my debut novel Under a Gilded Sky. She was loyal to her brother, lacking the prejudices of other family members. In one scene, she’s writing letters to get support for her hospital. That was the tiny seed of this new story. I wanted to get to know her better.
The previous book ended in 1876. I thought about what would be happening in the world soon after. I remembered the Tay Bridge disaster happened in 1879, and decided to try to include it in my story.
The novel moves between Boston and Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century. What drew you to these two settings?
I read a biography of Andrew Carnegie about a decade ago and got interested in the Gilded Age. He became the world’s richest man and gave away all his money by the time he died. You may have a Carnegie Library near you – google it! Carnegie lived in New York but I wanted a twist on that idea and had my rich railroad family based in the more patrician Boston – and more on the Vanderbilts than on the Carnegies.
Carnegie was born in a weaver’s cottage in Dunfermline. Later in life he would cross the Atlantic most years to visit, and eventually bought Skibo Castle in Sutherland. I realised that regular ocean travel was perfectly possible.
What kind of research did you undertake to bring Boston and Edinburgh in the 1870s and 1880s to life?
It is my dream to spend time in the locations for my books. To be honest, I made more money on my first two books than expected (I’m not talking mega-bucks: my ambition was to have enough money to replace my washing machine). I thought: This is money I’ve worked hard for. I’m going to reinvest it into the next book. So I went solo to Boston in 2025 and loved every minute. I walked all over the city, met a friend’s cousin in Harvard, and took the train north to Manchester by the Sea.
I know Edinburgh well, as a brother lives there. But I went back to specifically look at the locations in my book: the Botanical Gardens, Dean Cemetery etc. I also took the train from Edinburgh to Dundee.
And how do you ground a fictional novel in actual historical events so convincingly?
Thank you for saying you find the events convincing. Writing the first draft, I can focus on relationships and trying to make a gripping tale. After that, I do lots of research (mostly online), which I love. And then I try to enter into the situation imaginatively. What would it look like? Sound like?
How do you cope with missing information? I ask because I know research however diligently it’s done, leaves gaps.
I’m hoping this is not a spoiler – but there is a big gap in information about the Tay Bridge disaster. Thing is, there were no survivors. When you read the book, you’ll find out how I deal with that plot problem! There was an account from the signalman on the south side of the Tay, but it was dark and stormy, and he could see little more than a big flash. I took a train across the Tay on the new bridge and, eerily, the piers of the first bridge are still there. That scene took a lot of time to write, as I imagined what might have happened and how it would have felt.
Edinburgh has a long and fascinating medical history. How did that influence your portrayal of Dr McLennan and his background?
It was that connection with medicine that made me decide to have McLennan train in Edinburgh. I read about Sir James Young Simpson who was the first person to use chloroform as an anaesthetic and specialised in gynaecology. He was physician to Queen Victoria. Although he was a little older than McLennan, and died in 1870, there are echoes.
Travel between America and the UK back then, would have been by ship. How would you have coped a lengthy sea trip?
I would have hated it! I’m not good with sea-travel. I would have spent most of the journey wrapped up in blankets, sitting on the deck and trying not to retch.
Was there a particular scene or moment in An Ocean of Stars that you found especially satisfying or difficult to write?
The hardest scene was definitely the one where (spoiler alert!) Douglas returns to Boston. The first draft was slightly different, but my editor thought it made him look weak. I found it incredibly hard to re-write. I had to write a whole other chapter which I knew would never be in the book, in order to explore Douglas’ motivations and reasoning.
This is your fourth novel. How has your writing process or approach to storytelling evolved since your first book?
I’m getting faster, because I have to, now I have a contract! I now write with American punctuation (e.g. a dot after Mr. or Dr.) and try to catch the American spelling, to speed up the copy-editing process.
Over all, the process is the same though: first draft written by pencil on paper. Next draft typed up, making notes of things to fix. Next draft working through chapter by chapter, to get the shape and checking the research. After my lovely editor Vicky comes back with structural edits, I address the thing I always miss: the emotional side of the story. What are my characters feeling! An Ocean of Stars is a slow-burn romance, and I wanted it to be very romantic.
A question another writer asked me last year, was what was on my vision board for 2026? So, I thought it would be fun to ask all my guests this year if they would share one item on their board for 2026 – I might come back to you to later in the year and ask whether you achieved it! So what would be one item on yours?
Although I do lots of visual stuff for my books, my ‘vision board’ for 2026 is written down. Two things I wrote in January:
“I intend to enjoy writing Mary Lou’s story, working in a disciplined way.”
“I intend to crack the challenge of going to bed earlier and rising earlier.”
Only moderate progress made on both of those. Must try harder!
And finally, what’s next from the Imogen Martin stable?
I’m working on Mary Lou’s story! She is Ginny’s younger sister from Under a Gilded Sky.
Thank you for talking to me today, Imogen, and good luck with this book. Anni x
Book Link: https://geni.us/1019-al-aut-am
Social Media Links:
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Website: https://imogenmartinauthor.com
Anni Rose’s six uplifting and heartfelt romantic comedies are now available from Amazon in one box set:
