Australian author L A Larkin divides her time between writing environmental thrillers and working for one of Australia's most prominent climate change consultancies. Larkin recently spoke to gr about her debut novel and the writing process.

About The Genesis Flaw: It is the story of a ballsy advertising director with a guilty conscience, called Serena Swift. She takes on the world’s most powerful and corrupt biotech company. She believes their genetically engineered plants and animals are reactivating ancient deadly viruses in people who ingest them, causing an incurable pandemic.

Your first novel The Genesis Flaw has just been published – congratulations! What inspired you to become an author?

I have always been passionate about fiction, studying literature at university. I love reading thrillers and wanted to create my own action-packed, fast-paced stories, with intriguing characters, where the stakes are high and where the plot twists surprise. My thrillers tap into the hot issues of our time, such as genetic engineering and climate change: dramatic stories that were begging to be told. I, also, wanted to expand the genre a little by having a heroine. Whilst there are some amazing female characters in crime fiction, thrillers still seem to be the domain of the male protagonist. Having a woman go to hell and back creates a whole new level of vulnerability.

I understand you work for a climate change consultancy. How do you juggle your day job with finding time to write? Do your careers complement each other?

Energetics is incredibly supportive of my writing career and working at a climate change consultancy certainly stimulates ideas for new stories. Understanding the impact of carbon emissions on our planet has driven me to write my second book, Thirst, a climate change catastrophe thriller, set in Antarctica.

The main character Serena loses her father to lung cancer, which she thinks was caused by the genetically modified food created by her company. She faces the moral dilemma of fighting for her father or being loyal to her company. If you were in a similar position, what would you do?

Serena faces the classic whistle-blower’s dilemma and there are a number of incidents that conspire to push her over the edge. Serena pays a high price for what she does: destroying her career, endangering loved ones and nearly losing her life. Yet her journey is not a simple one, and the story opens with her deciding her career is more important than proving her suspicions that Gene-Asis’ products caused her father’s death. She is no saint and that’s what makes her interesting. I am not as brave as Serena, but if I believed a company was causing harm, I would not be able to work for them.

Some authors swear by their laptops while authors prefer the more traditional method of writing in notebooks. Which style do you prefer?

I write and rewrite with a laptop and when I am going through the early self-editing process, I love to use track changes. I can write anywhere, as long as I have my headphones to cancel out external noise. As my thrillers require an enormous amount of research, my laptop enables me to search the Net.

You certainly are a citizen of the world – you’ve been to pretty much every continent! Do you think your travelling experiences have influenced you as a writer?

Most certainly. My memory is full of wonderful people I have met and impressions of different cultures and societies. I think it is very hard to bring a place to life in a story, if you haven’t been there. This is true of The Genesis Flaw’s scenes in Zimbabwe and New York. It was, also, essential to spend time in Antarctica for my next novel.

You recently travelled to Antarctica where your next book Thirst is set. What part of your experience there surprised you the most? Why do you think Antarctica is so inspiring for so many writers?

Antarctica’s remoteness, the severity of the climate and its beauty, make it a fascinating place. For instance, until I went there, I had no idea that Antarctica is drier than the Sahara Desert! I was touched by Antarctica’s purity and, therefore, its vulnerability. Animals and birds regard you without fear, especially penguins. It is the only continent designated for peaceful purposes; it has no army; mining and nuclear explosions are prohibited; and it has no system of government other than a fragile treaty.  I hope that the treaty signatories, including Australia, continue to protect this beautiful place.
 
On your website you mention you’ve met with a script writer who is interested in turning The Genesis Flaw into a movie. If you could cast anybody as the role of Serena Swift, who would it be?

Cate Blanchett as the gutsy heroine, Serena, and Anthony LaPaglia as the corporate psychopath, Bukwoski. How amazing would that be!

You have a Facebook and Twitter account as well as a frequently updated website. How important do you think it is to have this sort of connection with fans?

I want my thrillers to appeal to a very wide audience, both here and overseas. It’s very important to me to have the chance to connect with my readers and listen to their feedback. A website, Facebook and Twitter accounts are great ways to connect with readers all over Australia and the rest of the world. At the same time, I look forward to meeting local readers at their reading groups and at bookshop events.

Climate change has certainly become a popular topic recently. What would you say to climate change sceptics?
I’d say, what if you are wrong? How will our children and grand children regard our generation when extreme weather patterns, permanent drought, coastal flooding, extended crop failures, water shortages and mass movements of displaced populations around the world have made their lives much tougher and scarier than ours? There is no doubt that human activity has pumped excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so isn’t it better to take action now, than let future generations pay the price? Where is the harm in developing cleaner, renewable sources of energy?
 
The plotline for The Genesis Flaw is a pretty scary one. Do you think something like this could really happen?

I have spent a lot of time researching the science behind the genetic modification of food, consulting with world renowned geneticists, and I think there are serious questions about the potential impacts of GM crops on human health and the environment. Some scientists believe that a virus used in a GM process has the potential to move into the human gut bacteria and that this might reactivate ancient dormant viruses we all carry around, as happens in my story. I do believe that people have the right to know if their food contains any genetically modified organisms.