Good Reading Magazine Blog

Q&A with Fiona McIntosh

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:36:00 --1000

Fiona McIntosh was born and raised in Sussex in the UK, but also spent early childhood years in West Africa. She left a PR career in London to travel and settled in Australia in 1980. She has written fourteen adult and five children's novels since her midlife crisis in Year 2000, and her bestselling books sell worldwide and in various languages. She lives in Adelaide with her family but roams the world for story ideas and research.

Why did you decide to become an author? Is writing something that you have always been passionate about?
Reading is something I’ve always been passionate about certainly. But becoming a novelist was never in my sights. I grew up loving language and having the ability to knock together well-structured essays and later I was bashing out press releases in my work, which ultimately led to being a co-publisher on a travel magazine where although I was head of marketing I was turning my attention to putting out some travel stories. I used to write long letters to family and friends – it was obvious I was a wordsmith but writing a book came as a genuine surprise. I wrote my first manuscript in a few weeks and when it was done I was shocked that a publisher wanted it. But I haven’t looked back. I now have 20 novels published, two more coming out this year and another one written for publication in 2013. All of my adult fantasy is sold worldwide and in foreign translation. You could say the floodgates of my imagination opened in Year 2000.

Growing up, which authors do you believe were the most influential on your writing style?
For my childhood it would be Enid Blyton and C S Lewis, who do still influence my writing for children. In my teens probably Stephen King and where perhaps I’ve developed that notion of suspense, which permeates my stories. By the time I turned 20 I was reading doorstop thrillers and sagas from people like Ludlum, Follett, Irwin Shaw, etc. And those are definitely stories that I emulate. In my thirties I rediscovered fantasy and writers including G G Kay, G R R Martin, Robin Hobb et al, had a huge influence on the style of writing and the books that got me known as a novelist. These days it’s Sharon Penman, Sebastian Faulks and a lot of very good non-fiction writers who deliver history as storytellers and have me completely under their spell….Anthony Beevor, David Cressy and co.

You were born and raised in England, lived for a while in West Africa and moved to Australia in your 20s. You also travel frequently around the world. How would you say your globetrotting has affected your writing?
Yes, I’ve travelled the world extensively since I was three and I think it would be fair to say that my globetrotting has profoundly influenced the sort of books I write, with their epic storylines and the way I like to set them across international landscapes. I would go so far as to say that every one of the novels I’ve written has, to some extent, been inspired and influenced by my travels and I can’t see that stopping because now I seem to set up a travel schedule for each new novel on the wind. Travel is a brilliant educator and the people you meet and experiences one is exposed to means ideas for stories are continually presenting themselves. Next trip is to Marrakech. Let’s see what it gives me!

You have written over 20 books since 2000. Looking back on this prolific career, what would you say has been your most rewarding experience as a writer?
Oh there are many if I’m honest. I’m always humbled by a happy audience that comes out on a very cold night during winter to spend a couple of hours listening to my tales and then clapping loudly before buying my book. That delivers enormous satisfaction but also genuine humility as I realise how powerful the written word is and how stories can reach out and touch people emotionally hundreds, often thousands, of kms away. I think my most gobsmacking event was being asked by my publisher to come to the French Book Fair and being flown with all the diva trappings into Paris and pinching myself that this was actually happening although I wasn’t entirely sure why. Then arriving at the publisher’s stand on the first day and marvelling at the enormous queue of people waiting for the four of us international writers from Bragelonne’s stable who had been brought in for the event…..but then being told that queue I was looking at was just for me. Nearly fainted clean away!
These are all good times but nothing compares to one’s first book contract and the first time you lay your hands on your first novel for the first time. I defy any new writer not to weep happy tears!

What can you tell us about your latest novel, The Lavender Keeper?
I can tell you that this is the favourite book of mine to date. It has everything in it that I go looking for in a novel….at its core is a wonderful love story as well as a tragic love story. And swirling around that ‘double affair’ is a tense, action-packed adventure of escape, treachery, revenge, despair and triumph. All of this is set against arguably the most romantic and yet fear-filled backdrop of Occupied Paris during WWll. This is a story of hope, and a story of a man’s love for his family, his life, his land …and for one woman whose presence threatens to destroy him.

What was your inspiration?
There were two triggers. I stumbled across Bridestowe Lavender Farm in Launceston while looking for attractions to visit with my parents in Tassie. It gave me the seed of my story i.e. the bringing of true French Lavender from the alpine region of Provence to the other side of the world. And I was flying into Paris for the French Book Fair and walked into all the celebrations of the 70th anniversary for WWll and the Liberation of Paris. It made me think about writing a wartime story and suddenly I remembered the history of Bridestowe and it was easy to bring the two together into an action/adventure romance.

The Lavender Keeper is set in France during World War II. How did you go about researching this turbulent period in history?
I read dozens of reference books – everything from Nazi uniforms to spy memoirs. I read about Hitler’s rise and the progress of the Nazi war machine across Europe, forever pushing east. I read Holocaust reference books, I ordered huge botanical tomes on the history of Lavender, about London during the Blitz and Paris during Occupation. I had towers of books by my bedside. Then I began watching documentaries – so many I’ve lost track. I ordered one particular documentary made by a French director that was incredibly helpful and was once banned in France because it was so confronting about the collaborators, etc. Intriguing stuff. Then I began to surf the Net. I spent months and months compiling the information I thought I needed to learn more about – and this was everything from the extraction of oil from lavender through to French politics at the time.
Finally I had to visit key destinations so that I could find my locations and understand them properly for the novel. If I didn’t know what they looked, smelled, felt, sounded and tasted like, how would I evoke those places for the reader? I spent several weeks in Provence, made several trips to Paris, two trips to London and then began to broaden my reach once I realised that I needed two volumes to tell this tale. So I visited Strasbourg, Krakow and Auschwitz in Poland, Vienna in Austria and spent a week or two on the south coast of Britain where returning spies were landed after the liberation of Paris.
Most importantly I talked to elders. I spoke to older people all over the world from Poland to Germany, France to Scotland. Their memories nourished this story because there’s nothing like real life experiences to spice a novel.

What would you like readers to take away from The Lavender Keeper?
The joy of getting completely lost in the pages of a rip roaring story – I’m hopeful that The Lavender Keeper is a page turner that allows readers to forget their daily drudge and live vicariously through the lives of three intriguing characters, and share WWll through their eyes. I’d like readers to have a new appreciation of what it must have been like to live under occupation and remind them about the catastrophe and tragedy that war can provoke including the Holocaust. I’d especially like Australian readers to appreciate the marvel of Bridestowe and its lovely history and the fact that we have a very special farm in Launceston that is now supplying the very precious oil of lavandula angustifolia, or the true ‘lavender fin’ that once grew wild and lush in Provence, back to the French to make their beautiful perfume.

Do you have any quirky writing habits?
Well, I don’t know if they’re quirky but they seem to intrigue aspiring writers. Firstly, I never write to any plan. I don’t plot or take notes. I simply write on mood and whim. 20 books in print behind me tells me that this formula works for me so I mustn’t over-analyse myself or I’ll become insecure about this curious method of freefalling into my novels. I write to a strict daily word count and when I reach the agreed amount I stop whether I’m in the middle of a tense scene or even a sentence. I just down tools and leave my computer and I’m confident I can pick up from where I left off the next day. I like to bake as a reward for my writing week. Crazy but true. I like silence while I write; I despise interruptions but it happens all the time when you have a family. I don’t read back my work until I’ve finished the entire manuscript and I know this sounds barmy but I can barely remember what I’ve written until I read the first draft – and it always surprises me. I like to write back-to-back novels. I don’t like not having a book on the go…so I rarely take holidays. The last was five days for a special birthday several years ago but I was quite twitchy by the end of it!

Can we expect another novel in the near future?
I’m pleased to say yes! In August 2012 is the release of my new middle readers’ fantasy – The Rumpelgeist – which follows on from The Whisperer. And then in November 2012 is the launch of my new adult fantasy…The Scrivener’s Tale. Next April the sequel to The Lavender Keeper will be released and that’s called Luc’s Promise we think. It’s written and now being edited. And by the time that rolls around I would have delivered a new shift into magic realism called Tapestry and I’ll be looking toward my next big historical action adventure by then. Always plenty on the go!

Do you have any advice that you would like to offer aspiring writers?
Yes. ‘Write’ is an action word. It requires you to do produce words on a page. Tinkering with yesterday’s words and worrying about tomorrow’s words are both unproductive pastimes. Get disciplined, don’t give yourself excuses and get on and write. I meet so many people who tell me they’re working on a book and when I probe a little further they’ve been working on it for years and then trot out all reasons - marriage, children, jobs…these are excuses not valid reasons. If you want to write, you will. But you have to make time in your life to do so – everyone can unless they’re sick, moving house or have a newborn baby (I allow for those unsettling and difficult situations!). Writers of popular fiction as I am have to be disciplined but also flexible, if that makes sense. You also need to develop a tough hide and absolute belief in yourself as a storyteller.

Q&A with Anthony Field

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:00 --1000

Anthony Field is the creator and a founding member of the global phenomenon that is The Wiggles. Born in 1963 the youngest of seven children, he grew up in Sydney’s western suburbs. Anthony and his brothers Paul and John and purple Wiggle Jeff were members of the ′80s chart topping group The Cockroaches.

For the first time, Anthony tells his inspiring, behind-the-scenes story of how he overcame depression, life-threatening illness and chronic pain to get his life back.

What were some of your favourite books when you were growing up?
Well I would have to say Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally.

As the blue Wiggle, you obviously lead a pretty busy life. What books do you like to read to wind down and relax?
Meditation books by Jean Vanier, my fave would be The Broken Body. I love biographies too.

Are there any particular moments in your extensive career that stand out above the rest?
The first few years, when we were loading in the PA system, driving ourselves miles and miles to do a show, playing ourselves and the characters, meeting people who had never heard of us, it was all very exciting.

What books do you and your children like to read together?
Well they are still very young, but they love Anthony Browne picture books and my oldest, Lucia, 8, loves 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!' books.

What can you tell us about your new book How I got my Wiggle Back? What led to its creation?
I was so thankful to the health professionals who saved my life and inspired me to work to become pain free. I wanted to produce a book which showed the world some natural cures and thanked these great healers.

What would you like your readers to take away from How I got my Wiggle Back?
That good health and a pain free existence are available to most people naturally. Yes you have to work at it, and yes you have to make lifestyle changes, but it will be worth it.

How I got my Wiggle Back is quite a revealing and yet inspiring look into your personal struggles. What challenges did you face when writing your book?
I couldn't and wouldn't delve too far back into some painful times, which I think really contributed to my clinical depression in later life.

Who would you say have been the most inspirational people in your life?
My parents, my fellow Wiggles, the doctors in the book and lately, famous Greek photographer Spiros Poros, whom has taken me under his wing and really helped me see things in a real Greek philosophical way.

Can we expect another book in the future?
I would love to write a book about some of the fun and inspiring people we have met on the road in the last 21 years, some funny stories, heart-warming stories and sadly some heartbreaking ones involving children with terrible diseases.

Do you have any advice that you would like to offer to your readers?
Health and happiness are attainable and yet they can be transient. Natural is best in diet and exercise. Take the steps, educate yourself on how our marvellous bodies work, respect your bodies and give them the best fuel and lots of rest. Enjoy life and love.

Q&A with Felicity Young

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:20:00 --1000

Felicity Young was born in Germany, educated in the UK and settled in WA. She trained as a nurse, married young and, with three young children, her arts degree took ten years to complete. In 1990 the family moved from the city and established a sheep farm in Gidgegannup WA. Here she studied music, reared orphan kangaroos and started writing.

What were some of your favourites books when you were growing up and why?
I can’t ever remember learning to read, it was about the only thing I never had difficulty with at primary school and I tended to read above my age. I started with the children’s classics, then onto C.S Lewis - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series still my favourite by far, and then graduating to more realistic adventure stories such as those by Willard Price: South Sea Adventure, Pacific Adventure, Lion Adventure etc By early teens I think I had read everything I could lay my hands on by Alistair Mclean and Hammond Innes. Then came a variety of ‘unsuitable books’ such as The Exorcist which I covered and took great joy in reading in front of the nuns at my boarding school, and a racy version of Calamity Jane that I found in the school’s compost heap. Funny, we were never allowed to read Enid Blighton – she was deemed unsuitable.

On plane trips home to Australia I used to thrive on Aeroplane disaster books such as Arthur Hailey’s Airport and then composing my own disaster books. I think that was probably my way of having some kind of control over the very dangerous flying conditions of the ‘70s.

In my mid teens my reading became suitable again: more classics, only the adult versions now, and Catholic angst by the likes of Graham Greene and Morris West.

Having trained as a nurse, what inspired you to become an author?
My father always enjoyed my letters home and wanted me to study journalism. I didn’t have the confidence and chose nursing because I saw it as ‘safe.’ I also thought it was a way to romance and adventure, and it was in a way. I met my husband when I was still a first year student. As soon as I had qualified as an RN I signed up for and arts degree at UWA. Each discipline provided something the other lacked. They were a great compliment to each other.

How do you feel that your time in Germany, the UK and Australia has influenced your writing?
I spent a lot of my childhood as a stranger in a strange country. Looking from the outside in is a handy tool for a writer to have. And of course, my mainly UK –based childhood has helped enormously with the Dody McCleland series.

What have been some of your most rewarding experiences as an author?
So many rewarding experiences; being an author has opened up another world in much the same way as the transition from nursing to university did. Most of all I love meeting and talking to other authors and readers. There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing how much someone has enjoyed your books. My aim has always been to entertain.

What can you tell us about your new novel, A Dissection of Murder?
It’s about Doctor Dody McCleland, Britain’s first female (fictitious) autopsy surgeon, her suffragette sister Florence and Chief Inspector Mathew Pike. Dody is called upon to perform an autopsy on a woman killed at a suffragette riot who turns out to be her sister’s best friend. It is about the different conflicts and moral dilemmas faced by the main characters and how they overcome them during the course of their investigations, set against a background of non fictitious historical events.

What led you to writing a historical crime fiction novel?
I’ve always loved history, especially this period. I actually started with a history major at uni before switching to English lit. I had always wanted to write historical, but thought it might be wise to cut my teeth on contemporary crime fiction first – and besides, historical wasn’t selling too well at the time!

Your protagonist, Dody McCleland, is England’s first female autopsy surgeon. How did you go about researching this profession at the turn of the twentieth century?
Mainly by trawling the internet, books and articles and visiting museums. The subject fascinates me and I love the research.

Can we expect to see more of Dody McCleland in the future?
Absolutely. I am in the process of editing book 2 as well as having written the first ten thousand words of book 3.

Do you have any quirky writing habits?
One, yes, and it almost lead to my downfall. I love writing in bed, but my back doesn’t. Forced to take my physio’s advice, I mainly write at a desk now, but every now and then during a particularly tricky scene, my bed lures me back.

Do you have any advice that you would like to offer to aspiring authors?
Be patient. Gain as much life experience as you can and don’t be in a hurry to get published. Enjoy the process.

Q&A with T S Learner

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:32:00 --1000

T S Learner was born and raised in England and has lived in both Australia and the USA. She is well known in Australia as a playwright. Her first collection of short stories, Quiver, written as Tobsha Learner, has sold over 150 000 copies internationally.

Her third book – the bestselling The Witch of Cologne – was her first work of historical fiction and was followed by another collection of short stories, Tremble, and two more novels, Soul and Sphinx. T S Learner divides her time between London, Sydney and California.

Why did you decide to become an author? Is writing something that you have always been passionate about?
I actually began my career as a playwright (my original training was sculptor) so theatre, image making was something I was (and still am) passionate about – creating very visual, visceral prose excites me, stories my readers can breath, smell, journey through, writing excites me as long as I feel I am moving my audience.

You divide your time between Australia, America and England. How do you feel this influences your writing?
It gives me a very global perspective; it has also allowed me to join up disparate parts of my life. I feel more integrated in terms of my English/European background and also as an Australian who spend a lot of her adult life in Australia. I think also it gives me an objective edge, an outside eye in terms of the stories I chose to write about, on the negative I get very concerned about the big issues – no way do I ever get lost in suburbia!

You’re an author of many talents, writing historical fiction, thrillers and erotic short stories. Is there a particular genre that you enjoy writing the most?
Not really, the short stories provide a psychological balance for the intensity of the research that goes into the thrillers. I plan to write more historical fiction in the future, also some ‘straight’ short stories – more poignant than erotic!

Do you have any quirky habits when you’re writing?
Totally, I have a very ugly pale green hat with a Chelsea emblem on it I wear when it’s cold (I am a Chelsea fan!) There’s a saying my household – two hat weather – it’s a reference to the fact that I have been known to wear two hats (a beanie inside another) when it’s really cold. I get very fussy about body temperature – maybe it’s displacement activity, I also cannot listen to music with lyrics, classical is ok, silence when I’m in an intense dialogue with my imagination is even better. But I can write almost anywhere, although I try and time where I will be writing at what stage I will be in the development of the books. For example I like to do the polishing of late drafts in the courtyard of our Californian house – surrounded by my gardening (bliss) because I can afford a little distraction. Otherwise it will be the window in my writing studio in London that looks out onto a grey roof and pigeons, or my window in Sydney, which has a tree outside. I can’t write in front of anyone.

Where did the inspiration for your new novel, The Map, come from?
I’ve had a long-term fascination for both the International brigade and the Spanish Civil war, and I was looking for an epic political backdrop to set a thriller against, similar to my previous thriller SPHINX. I have a very close Basque friend who suggested I looked at the Basque experience under Franco, and at their fascinating pagan beliefs (the Basques were the last to be Christianized in Europe). I also discovered the fascinating fact that the Americans had trained up Basque nationalists with the idea of overthrowing Franco just after the war then had withdrawn their officers. A plot started to form - The Map is interesting because it actually fuses several strands from my other works – the Jewish psychic Shimon in the 17^th century subplot of The Map is also a Sephardic Jew fleeing the Inquisition – just like the mother of the Ruth bat Saul in The Witch Of Cologne.

What can you tell us about August Winthrop, the protagonist of The Map?
He’s a blue-blood Bostonian who has studied Classics at Oxford University then has been recruited (like many of the bright young things of the late 1920s and 30’s) into the communist party and then sent to Spain to fight in 1937 with the Lincoln Brigade (the US squadron of the international brigade). When we meet him it is post war England 1953, grim, in the grip of rationing and unemployment and August is morally bereft, suffering from PSDT, womanizing and looking for meaning. He finds it in the form of a mission – to take a mysterious 17^th chronicle back into Franco’s Spain and return it to the Basque family it belongs to – an incredibly dangerous undertaking for an ex-soldier with the international brigade.

What are you hoping that readers will take away from The Map?
I did a lot of real research for this book, so I’m hoping not only will it be a transporting ‘ride’, but also an informative insight into the suffering of both the Basques (and the Spanish left-wing) under Franco, an understanding of the many nationalities who fought (and died) fighting the growing tyranny of fascism (Franco, Hitler and Mussolini) long before war was actually declared against the Axis powers - including the Erich Thaelman brigade (The Germans who fought against Franco and Hitler) . The mystical element in the book also covers the cabbalistic Tree of life, so the reader will also learn quite a lot about both the cabbala and the spiritual meaning of sephirots – the spiritual stations of The Tree of Life. There is also a disturbing twist at the end of the book which throws up a lot of questions about the nature of belief.

Can we expect another novel in the future?
Naturally, my next book will be set in Zurich in 1982 and the Romany (gypsy) experience in the Holocaust will be the back-story. It will be a thriller around the notion of ethnic identity, the duplicity of the Swiss and a family dynasty of Watchmakers.

What have been some of your most memorable experiences as a writer?
My most memorable experiences would come in the form of the people and places I encounter – sometimes these are very personal and moving first-person accounts, sometimes it’s a revelation of an historical fact that has gone under the radar of main-stream belief. For example I was with a close German friend of mine who has been my research assistant both on The Witch of Cologne and on The Map. We were in Hamburg interviewing people who had lived through the British occupation in 1953 (post-war) but also researching the German resistance in the form of the Erich Thaelman brigade (the German communists who fought against Franco then Hitler). We were at the Erich Thaelman centre and were shown a map of the German concentration camps for Germans within Germany itself –these were the camps where Hitler sent the Germans who resisted the Nazis – from ordinary businessmen who vocalized their dissent to organized underground resistance. Both of us were surprised at the number of these detention camps – there were many clustered around cities, but my German friend (who’s over forty) was seriously shocked – he had no idea! It gave you a real sense of the internal tyranny of the regime.

Likewise the older Basques who were generous enough to share their experiences of both the civil war and living under Franco felt like a rare gift – I only hope I can do justice to such memories! At the other end of the spectrum some of the most memorable and gratifying experiences for me is feedback from my readers, I remember a young lad at the Adelaide festival (decades ago) coming up to have his copy of Quiver signed and telling me he found it very instructive in terms of losing his virginity! One of my prize possessions is a letter from an American reader saying how he had been totally gripped by The Witch of Cologne, particularly the account of the persecution the Inquisition imposed – his second paragraph begun ‘..as I write to you from behind the bars of this prison…’ it turned out he was under ‘the care’ of the Californian State penitentiary system! That was very moving

Do you have any advice that you’d like to offer to aspiring writers?
Write detailed treatments, these will save a lot of heartbreak and time later, also be prepared to rewrite and rewrite, be as self-critical as possible, strive to finish a first draft and don’t get stuck polishing and re-polishing your favorite paragraph before you’ve finished the whole manuscript. Never ever send a first draft to an agent or publisher, become an avid reader, and remember craft, living a full life and tenacity counts as much as talent – maybe more.

Q&A with Marina Endicott

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:09:00 --1000

Canadian author Marina Endicott was born in Golden, British Columbia, and grew up in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director before moving to London, where she began to write fiction. She now teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta. She's had three plays produced and her long poem, The Policeman's Wife, some letters, was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards in 2006.

Marina's first novel, Open Arms, was nominated for the Amazon/Books In Canada First Novel award in 2002 and serialized on CBC Radio's Between the Covers. Good to a Fault (2009) was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. The Little Shadows has recently been named on the longlist of the 2011 Giller Prize.

Who are some of your favourite authors and books? And why?
I love Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Beginning of Spring, set in Russia in the early days of the Bolshevik revolution. In her hands, period is never bits of research hammered on for show, but both the real, believable, inescapable world of her characters, and their emotional lives made manifest. I admired Helen Garner’s The Spare Room for the same meticulous attention to the domestic world of women, every painful moment glowing with the energy field of ordinary things. I have a tenderness for writers as seemingly opposite as P.G. Wodehouse and Samuel Beckett, Louisa May Alcott and Janet Frame, Mark Helprin and Tim Winton. One of my favourite Canadians is Gil Adamson, whose remarkable The Outlander is set in the same western landscape as The Little Shadows, but ten years earlier and wilder.

Where did you find the inspiration for The Little Shadows?
Three elements combined to make me susceptible to vaudeville: my early experience in touring theatre and small theatre companies; loving and being depressed by comics; and getting to know the audience in the prairies. I was no great shakes as an actor, better at readings than the longer marathon of performance runs. But the beauty of the backstage is always enchanting, especially that dual view—watching the performance from the shadows in the wings, while at the same time seeing the hidden mechanisms, the people behind the screen making things work.

Did you have to do a lot of research into vaudeville and 1900s America?
Yes, I read and researched vaudeville for six or seven years before realizing that it was time to write the book—research can bespell you into seven more years of reading if you don’t watch out. As well as working in archives and libraries, I drove the route that the Belle Auroras take down through Montana and across to Winnipeg, and also that California trail where Bella triumphs later, so that I’d have a good visual understanding of the landscape the girls travel through. The photographic record of both vaudeville performers and the small city architecture of that time is enchanting.

What led you to pursue a career in writing?
I was an actor for many years, and then a director and a dramaturge, enjoying the luxury of imagining things for a living. But it’s a collaborative world, the theatre, and when I moved to the northern Alberta wilderness with my Mountie husband, there was nobody to collaborate with. So to do the same kind of work alone, I turned to fiction.

What was your life like as an actor / director before writing?
Interesting, exciting, demanding—interspersed with intolerable periods of boredom when one project was finished and the next had not yet begun; in those spaces I usually turned to writing for relief, as a vent for the unstoppable imaginary lives churning through my head.

Do you have a character in The Little Shadows whom you are particularly fond of?
I love East & Verrall—two characters who act as one most of the time. An inseparable comedy duo along the lines of Laurel & Hardy (or Vladimir & Estragon from Waiting for Godot), they shepherd and chivvy the girls along, providing a kind of moral touchstone, even if they don’t bother much with morality themselves!

While writing, do you have any quirky habits?
Oh what counts as a quirk? I don’t hang upside down from the ceiling or drink only black coffee, like Balzac, but I become ridiculously abstracted/distracted, to the point of idiocy; long before the first draft is done, my children and husband grow very tired of repeating themselves to try to get through to me.

What did you experience when you discovered you had won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean?
Surprised by joy, that about sums it up. And that was before I understood that it would mean a trip to Auckland, a tour of New Zealand and a side-trip to Tonga. I was delighted to make the acquaintance of many wonderful Australian and New Zealand writers like Christos Tsiolkas and Eleanor Catton.

What would you like your readers to take away from The Little Shadows?
I hope The Little Shadows works on a few levels: the picaresque adventures of the vaudeville company; the vissicitudes girls go through coming to terms with themselves, their bodies and minds; and also as an examination of how we become true artists—how life infests and influences the work that artists do. I wanted to write about love and death, just for a change; about money and its morality; and above all, art: what makes it good, is it worth suffering for, is trashy art worth doing—what threads run through our long lives in art?

Do you have any tips or advice for future writers?
Only the usual mantra: read. If you don’t like to read fiction (as some writers legitimately don’t, for various reasons), then read poetry, listen to audiobooks, watch television, movies—go to the theatre, watch improv. The more you understand about how other people do this work, the better you’ll figure out how to do your own work.

Q&A with Carrie Tiffany

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:16:00 --1000

Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in the Red Centre and now lives in Melbourne, where she works as an agricultural journalist.

Carrie's first novel, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (2005) was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book (2006) and the 2006 Western Australian Premier's Award for Fiction. Mateship with Birds is Carrie's second novel.

Growing up, who were some of your favourite authors?
My family was more of a television household than a book household. We migrated from the UK to Australia in the early 1970s. My parents brought a set of leather bound Charles Dickens with us. They arrived in a shipping container wrapped in our winter sheets and smelling of England – of gravy. I was ten or eleven when I started reading them – not reading like an adult – I’d skip large chunks, but I still found them enchanting. By my early twenties I’d developed a serious book habit. When I was working as a park ranger in Central Australia I ordered books from the library in Alice Springs and they arrived by Grey Hound bus. These are a few of my favourite authors: Flaubert, George Eliot, Chekhov, Nabokov, Marquez, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin, William Maxwell, Patrick White, Carver, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Ford, Shirley Hazzard, Marilynne Robinson, Brian Castro, JM Coetzee, Gerald Murnane, David Malouf, Alice Munro…(I could fill several pages…)

How did your passion for the land arise?
When we arrived from the UK we lived on a housing estate in Perth, WA. I was very taken with the nature strip at the front of the house. It was remarkable to me that this new country had so much space every house had a strip of dirt and straggly gum tree in front of it. I developed a childish notion that the nature strips linked up and if you followed them they would take you out to the bush. Spinning out at 18 I left uni and went travelling – I followed the nature strip inland to the bush.

After starting out life as a park ranger in Central Australia, what led you to pursuing a career as an author?
I’m not sure what prompted me to start writing. I’ve always read a lot. I don’t think there is such a thing as a career as an author. I have a day job and I have my writing too. The writing is something special that is often frustrating and occasionally thrilling. I’m not interested in industrial authorship – writing to schedule or publishing just because you are (evidently) a writer.

Your works have been shortlisted for various awards in the past, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. How does this recognition make you feel?
It’s lovely. But when you are sitting at the table struggling with a sentence it doesn’t exist.

What can you tell us about your new book, Mateship with Birds?
I’m not the best person to ask as it is too close to me. I’ve been telling people it is about sex and birdwatching, but that’s a bit glib. I think it’s about love and loneliness and families. It is also about our relationships with animals. I really enjoy writing about animals. This novel features a whippet, a cat, numerous cows and birds and an unfortunate sheep.

What was the inspiration behind Mateship with Birds?
I did some technical freelance writing for the state government a few years ago on biodiversity. The language of biodiversity is really depressing. Landscapes have ‘amenity value,’ rather than beauty. The work was science based and I was struck by how science has removed the ‘subject’ from the landscape. I also stumbled across some lovely books by early Australian nature writers including Alec Chisholm’s Mateship with Birds (1922). In these books there was some honour in being an amateur lover of nature and no hesitation about anthropomorphising animals. Mix this with an interest in sex, some Freud and some Havelock Ellis and the novel was born.

Do you have any quirky habits that appear when you’re writing?
In the winter I get very cold from sitting still. Blankets, furry boots and woolly hats are in order – Mawson making an assault on the polar sentence…

What would you like your readers to take away from Mateship with Birds?
The book is an accumulation of details. An acknowledgement that novels can be small and intimate and still rich in feeling would be lovely.
Do you have any words of advice that you would like to offer to aspiring authors?
It is the writing that matters. Nothing else.

When can your readers expect to see another of your novels?
When I’m happy enough with it to let it go.

Q&A with Fiona McCallum

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:17:00 --1000

Fiona McCallum spent her childhood years on the family cereal and wool farm outside a small town on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. An avid reader and writer, she decided at the age of nine that she wanted to be the next Enid Blyton!

While studying, she found herself drawn to writing fiction where her keen observation of the human condition and everyday situations could be combined with her love of storytelling.

In 2002 Fiona completed her first manuscript soon made the difficult decision to return to Adelaide to develop a career as a novelist. She now enjoys the sharp contrast between her corporate work and creative writing.

Why did you decide to become an author? Is writing something that you have always been passionate about?
It was just after I’d turned thirty that I discovered that my true passion lay in writing full-length fiction, but I’ve had a love of reading and writing for as long as I can remember. I did declare at the age of nine that I wanted to be the next Enid Blyton! But a career in the arts wasn’t encouraged and the dream got lost for many, many years. It’s been an interesting journey full of twists and turns to get me to where I am now - and one I wouldn’t change for the world.

Growing up, which authors do you believe were the most influential on your writing style?
I’m not sure how much their influence shows in my writing style, but as a child I loved anything by Enid Blyton and then later Catherine Cookson, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

What would you say has been the greatest inspiration for your writing?
My own life experiences. I’ve been blessed to have enjoyed some interesting moments and contrasts, such as life on the land in rural South Australia and corporate life in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney.

How did it feel to have your first novel, Paycheque, published?
Exciting, but also a huge relief after spending nine years trying to find a publisher for one of my four manuscripts.

What are you hoping that readers take away from your new novel, Nowhere Else?
I hope readers will enjoy Nowhere Else as an entertaining read, and also perhaps be inspired to go on their own journeys of self-discovery to find where their true passions lie. I think life is both too short and too long to be doing a job that doesn’t make you truly happy.

What was the inspiration behind Nowhere Else?
I wanted to pay a small tribute to friends, Peter and Wendy Olsen, who died in the Whyalla Airlines crash in 2000. And beyond that, Nowhere Else is another journey of self-discovery story set in rural Australia. I love the idiosyncrasies of small country towns. After school I wanted to be a farmer with my father but, because I have a brother, there was no point even mentioning it. I think writing about farm life is therapy for my thwarted ambition, and I’m probably going to need it for a while yet!

Did you find that writing your second novel was easier after your first novel was published?
I am finding it more difficult to write lately, but that’s more around finding the time and headspace to focus with all the new demands that come with being published, such as going to speak at bookstores and libraries, as well as the fact that you tend to be dealing with revisions from your editor while trying to write something new.

What have been some of your most memorable experiences as a writer?
My serendipitous moment of finally finding a publisher - it’s a bit of a long story. Since being published, I would have to say one of the most amazing things is getting emails from random people telling me how much they’ve enjoyed my book. It’s just so lovely.

Do you have any quirky writing habits?
Hmm, I’m guessing writing propped up in bed might be considered a little quirky. When I started being serious about my writing I was travelling a little with my now ex-partner. I decided that if I made bed my ‘zone’ for writing I’d be able to get in the ‘zone’ no matter where I was. And, no, I’ve never fallen asleep! Perhaps also considered quirky is that I write by hand - in a particular notebook with a Waterman mechanical pencil. It’s a bit of a pain having to then type everything up, but it’s what works for me (I’ve tried other ways). The good thing is that my first draft turns out more like a third draft with the little bit of tweaking I do while putting it into the computer.

Can we expect another novel in the future?
Absolutely! I’ve got way too much to say! I’d like to get a novel out each year for the next 39 years - that would then make me 80. No pressure!

Q&A with Sulari Gentill

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:09:00 --1000

Sulari Gentill set out to study astrophysics, ended up graduating in law, and later abandoned her legal career to write books instead of contracts. Sulari was shortlisted for Best First Book in our region for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011.

She grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW, which she shares with her young family and several animals... the farm, not the truffles.

She has been writing for a few years, but thinking about it most of her life. She’s pretty sure now that writing is what’s she’s supposed to do. This month, Sulari chats to us about her passion for writing and her fascination for Australian history.

Originally you graduated university with a law degree, so what led you to becoming an author?
Sometimes I think everything, including my law degree, led me to becoming a writer.

I started at University studying Astrophysics. As much I quickly realised that I was not meant to be an Astrophysicist, the study of pure mathematics did give me the grounding in logic that is necessary to make a plot, particularly a crime fiction plot, work. I became involved in amateur theatre and on the stage I learned about dialogue and timing. Then the law trained me to write quickly and precisely, to weave a story around given facts.   All that was missing was the realisation of what I was really meant to do with that knowledge. Quite stupidly I thought I was supposed to become a lawyer, and so for several years I did just that. But always I felt at though I was living someone else’s life – a perfectly nice life – just not mine.

And then one day, during a conversation with an old friend, I had an idea for a story. I was so excited by the idea that I didn’t stop to worry about whether I could actually write a novel and I just began. It all seemed to fall into place. Once I started writing, it was incomprehensible that I would ever stop.

Is writing something that you’ve always been drawn to or did the love develop later in life?
I’ve been drawn to writing for as long as I can remember. When I was a child and all things seemed possible, I’d think about the books I’d write, the masterpieces I’d paint and the films in which I’d star. As I got older, of course, I became more realistic and less courageous. Writing a novel seemed as outrageous an ambition as winning an Academy Award, so I put those dreams away and pursued a sensible profession. One associated with an income. For a while I was distracted by contracts and deeds.   I think there were always stories in my head. At night I would close my eyes and play them out for my own amusement… I just didn’t think that anyone else would be interested. I still dream my books… it’s just that now I write them down.

In truth, though I’ve been writing for only four years, I spent all the decades before gathering material.

Your Rowland Sinclair series is set in Sydney during the 1930s. How did you approach the research that was required for writing the series? Did you discover any interesting or unknown facts about Australian history?
Mostly, I research as I write. My work is story and character driven. I weave my plot and characters into historical events and, whilst I have fallen in love with the eras in which I write, I am always cognisant that I am not producing an historical textbook. What I focus on in my research is the details of the era which are needed to colour what my characters are actually doing, seeing, smelling or thinking. I go looking for those details as and when they come up in my writing...that way, I ensure that I’m not simply inflicting my research on the reader to demonstrate my vast knowledge of plumbing or economics or farming practices in the 1930s.
That being said, I do often just come across an historical figure who is so intriguing that I think “Hmmm… Rowland needs to meet him/her” and somehow find a way for them to wander into the plot. Similarly, some historical events and groups are so interesting that I conspire to have Rowland stumble into them. The glory of writing historical fiction is that I can, through Rowland Sinclair, meet some of the truly amazing, inspiring and often quite mad characters who were out and about in the 1930s.

What inspired you to write a historical crime fiction series?
Initially it was not so much an inspiration as a pragmatic decision. Writing can be quite an isolating passion. As a writer you spend a lot of time living in your own head among people that exist only there. It can be hard on your family, particularly if you have not always been a writer. My husband, Michael, married a perfectly sane, income-producing, corporate-dressing lawyer. Suddenly he found himself financially and otherwise attached to a writer who had “work pyjamas” and would talk to herself. It must have been quite a shock. The poor man also found himself conscripted as the first editor of my work.

I realised early on that I wasn’t ever going to stop writing, and I had no immediate plans to get rid of Michael either, so it occurred to me that in order to ensure his continued cooperation, I would need to bring him into this world in my head… I would need write towards him in a way. Michael is an historian by trade, whose particular expertise is in the extreme right-wing movements of the 1930s in Australia. And so, not coincidentally, the Rowland Sinclair series is set in that era and against that political backdrop.

Of course, once I started delving into the thirties, the era captured my imagination and I was away. But the world of Rowland Sinclair is one which my husband understands and loves and much as I do. He’s happy to edit my manuscripts, to check my historical facts and have conversations about Rowland Sinclair as if he were a real person. Having an expert in the era in bed next to you, is also quite handy. It’s worked out rather well really.

Rowland Sinclair and his cohort are very colourful characters and feel quite genuine. Are they based off any real life inspirations?
Mostly they are a conglomeration of real life inspirations, each having the traits and idiosyncrasies of a number of people I have known. That being said, Wilfred Sinclair quite closely resembles my husband in manner and attitude. I have been known to write Wilfred’s dialogue by asking Michael, “What would you say if…?”, and the just typing in his response. For this reason, I’m often a bit disconcerted if readers express too strong a dislike of Wilfred Sinclair… after all, I married him.

Miles Off Course is the third book in the Rowland Sinclair series. What can readers expect from this latest instalment?
Miles Off Course opens in early 1933. Rowland Sinclair and his companions are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic – Medlow Bath, where Edna is receiving treatment and Rowland is struggling with a new nude model.

And then Harry Simpson vanishes.

Croquet and pre-dinner cocktails are abandoned for the High Country of NSW where Rowland hunts for Simpson with a determination that is as mysterious as the disappearance itself. Stockmen, gangsters and a belligerent writer all gather to the fray, as the investigation becomes embroiled with a much darker conspiracy.

This latest instalment once again follows Rowland and his entourage of bohemians into an extraordinary time in Australian history.   It brings Rowland to the Snowy Mountains, which is my back yard, and drags him into a rural hotbed of abduction, murder and global subterfuge.

Crime plays an integral part of the plotlines within the series. Is it difficult to come up with a storyline that will be interesting and keep the reader guessing until the end?
I usually start with one event, place or fact (quite often historical) that I find interesting. Then I just start to write. Generally, I have no idea “who did it” until I’m at least halfway through the novel. I figure that if I’m guessing, the reader probably will be too. So far, I haven’t had any trouble coming up with storylines. The period between the wars is so rich in controversy, style and insanity that I’m never short of inspiration.

Not giving anything away, but Rowland and the fiery Edna share an interesting relationship. Where do you see their relationship heading in the future?
Realistically, the story arc of Edna and Rowland’s relationship runs parallel to the greater story arc of the entire series. So much of who they are is defined by what they are to each other. So much of who Edna is, and why Rowland loves her, is about her independence, her ambition and her refusal to relinquish these things.

Of course neither has taken a vow of chastity, and I doubt I’ll be able to resist allowing either of them the odd dalliance. Rowland will continue to be under pressure to settle down and marry an appropriate girl from a good family. He will continue to resist. Edna will continue to resist him… for a while at least.

Without giving anything away, Rowland and Edna will have their moments. Some of these moments will have far-reaching consequences and others will be forgotten by everybody but them.

Along with the familiar faces of Rowland’s faithful friends Milton, Clyde and his brother Wilfred, will we be introduced to any new characters in Miles Off Course? Anyone we should be keeping our eye on?
Harry Simpson. Through him readers may get another insight into the Sinclairs, and into what makes Rowland the man he is. In truth I didn’t initially intend to carry Harry’s story on to future books, but his voice was so strong and warm that I wanted him to stay. Quite unexpectedly, he let me in on a dark and guarded secret, the ramifications of which will play out later in the series.

A Few Right Thinking Men was very well received and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. What would it mean to you if Miles Off Course received similar accolades?
Without any pretence of nonchalance, I would be ecstatic. To me, having a book published is like sending your children out into the world. You know they have to make their own way but you worry. When people like them, and are kind to them, it gives you the courage to send out the next child. For each book you have the hope that it will find its own place and friends in the literary world…and, if you’re very lucky, the occasional person that will love it as you do.

So, yes, if Miles Off Course were received as well as A Few Right Thinking Men has been, I would be truly delighted and very grateful.

When can readers expect the next Rowland Sinclair adventure?
Paving the New Road, which takes Rowland and his inappropriate friends to Germany as Hitler is consolidating power, is the next book in the series, and will be released in August 2012.

Q&A with Zoran Drvenkar

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:45:00 --1000

Meet Zoran Drvenkar, author of Sorry, a psychological thriller that climbed its way up the German bestseller lists almost instantly and won a spot on Germany's prestigous best crime book list.

What did you want to be at 5, 13 and 20 years of age?

I was mainly struggling with trying to be myself, so I really didn’t think much about being someone else. I started reading at 5 and that’s when the world opened for me. When I was 13, I wrote my first poem. Kitsch met hormones whilst connecting frontally with drama. I loved it and I felt like a genius, almost untouchable. Soon I turned to horror stories and left poems that rhymed behind as soon as I opened my first Bukowski. Other kids open beer bottles, cigarette packs, dirty magazines, I was addicted to books from day one and Bukowski was a nice step in the right direction. From 15 until 22, I was copying everything I read, learning the trade from writers by mimicking them and slowly, very slowly finding my own voice. My head was a melting pot, all the stories i have read were tumbling around in there and something new surfaced on paper.

What prompted you to write your first novel?

There were so many books and ideas and plot twists planted in my brain, that I had to do something - rob a bank, start a cooking class, climb a mountain. I never finished school and hated the time it stole from me as much as I hated the thought to be interested in things you cannot be interested in when you are 12 - like chemistry and mathematics and why a curve does this and that and why worms have their heads next to their asses. After reading every book that came close to me I turned very fast onto the road of writing. I was allowed to think and write and express what I wanted, without limits, without rules. I could bleed out my heart or I could be cruel as hell. It was possible. You can’t say no to that.
The first novel was beautiful trash. It was a fantasy plot, full of naked women and men hunting with swords and bad guys with names like Darkian and Komor. The novel was called WITCHHUNTER and it was written on a typewriter on very thin paper that felt like papyrus. I still have it and the world will never see it.

Where did the inspiration for your novel, Sorry come from?

In the beginning there was a dream. A rather boring one. In the dream I met three friends. We were standing around and no one was very happy with life. Suddenly I had this idea. Why not open an agency that apologizes to people? And why not call it Sorry.
When I woke from this dream it was around 3 in the morning and I was really tired and I thought about the dream and decided it is really not worth thinking about. But as a writer you learn never to dismiss sentences or ideas. If you dismiss them, you can be sure they will hang on in your mind and you will try to grasp them and they will not let you because you already ignored them once. So I took a pen, didn’t turn on the lights, wrote Sorry into the palm of my hand and fell asleep again. That’s how it started.

In what ways was writing this psychological thriller different to your other works?

It wasn’t. For me there is no great difference between a children‘s book or a thriller. The characters are always in front, and sometimes they are just eight years old, a little crazy and hungry for life. And sometimes they are thirty, very crazy and as hungry for life as an alligator. There is no switch in my head seperating how the story is told as I am not writing for an audience and not trying to please a readership. It is very satisfying to move from one genre to the other, telling the stories that bother me and espescially the stories of my characters.

Which writer or writers have kept you hooked throughout their works?

There are so many, I could fill a country and let them make babys and build houses and by the end of the day there still would not be all of them in that country. Their number is growing all the time. When I was young I learned a lot from William Goldman, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving. Later I fell in love with Mark Helprin, Richard Laymon, Richard Brautigan, Joyce Carol Oates, Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, Charles Bukowski, Lars Saabye Christensen, Hubert Selby, Larry McMurtry, Andrew Vachss, the early Michael Crichton, John Sandford and a hundred more.

When writing, what quirky habit/s do you have?

The only one unusual thing is that I am totally lost in time. The days melt into each other and I am always waiting for snow. The silence outside makes me sigh, the darkness wakes me up. My writing needs a lot of coffee and tea, a lot of movies and music, even more books and there have to be candles - no cats and dogs, no fish looking at me. Just me and life and good friends dropping by and my muse. You can’t write without a muse. And mine is a star.

How did you feel when Sorry entered the bestseller list almost immediately after release and was placed on the prestigious best of crime list, Krimi-Welt-Bestenliste, in Germany?

I was smiling.

What were the challenges you faced while writing Sorry?

I planned a novel about four friends who have a great idea and turn it into business. It should have been a critical novel about our social life and the way we behave with each other. I knew there was more behind the story, but I didn’t expect it to be so much more. After 150 pages I got scared by the story, as two young characters that were never planned stepped into it. They popped up while I was writing, I let them loose and the story turned on me and I was scared of my own writing. I put the book away for two years, wrote three children‘s books in-between to let the steam out. But a writer has to be loyal to his books and espescially to his characters. So I came back and I turned one winter into a long dark night. I hope I have not to do this again.

What should a new reader expect from Sorry?

Forgiveness.
The reader has to forgive me for the beginning.
So let’s talk to him directly:
Dear Reader, I am a nice guy. I hate torture, I don’t mutilate people to put you on edge and I would never hurt you. I love to scare you, to make you feel uncomfortable, so that you start to doubt reality. I really love this. But honestly - you will never see me being unfair to you, all the way along I will try to gain your trust. And if you think my novels starts mean and ugly there are some suprises along the way that I really hope will blow your mind. And I can promise you, the further you get into the novel, the more you will understand why I did the mean and ugly act and I am sure you will forgive and understand me.

Q&A with Rodney Hall

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:01:00 --1000

Rodney Hall is one of Australia’s finest writers. He has won the Miles Franklin Award twice for Just Relations and The Grisly Wife and many of his novels and poems have been published internationally. His acclaimed memoir popeye never told you was published in 2010. He lives in Melbourne. Here he chats to gr about his new collection, Silence.

As a child, you moved from your home in England to start a new life in Australia. How did this experience affect your life and your writing?
We arrived from England when I was 13. But this was not a new idea—all through my childhood it had been the plan. My mother’s determination to return here (her family had had a farm in Kangaroo Valley before the war) was always a powerful factor. Australia became my magic land all through the bombing: it was the place I imagined escaping to. And well before setting foot here my great hobby was collecting information, pictures and stamps about Australia. All but one of my novels are about understanding Australia and Australian history . . . absorbing and embracing this as home.

After starting out life as a musician, actor, painter and writer, what led you to becoming an author?
I knew I would make a life in the arts, the question of which one ended up being decided by chance, really. At 16 I was introduced to John Manifold and his wife Kate. I went to their house on the outskirts of Brisbane, armed with my clarinet, to make music. The moment I stepped into that house I knew my life had changed forever. Although Manifold was an accomplished musician—he introduced me to baroque music, for a start—he was principally a poet and essayist. His encouragement when he offered to read my stories and poems was what set me on the path to becoming a writer.

Having written extensively over your career, what are some of the ways in which you find ideas for your work?
I find my ideas in society and social values, in issues that may arise locally but have wider and deeper implications. I always conceive of my characters in social situations. It’s the interconnections and interactions between people that fascinate me.

Who or what have been some of your greatest inspirations for your writing?
Patrick White changed everything for writers of my generation. Suddenly he set the bar way higher than it had ever been before. Overnight we knew Australia was on the world literary stage and that somehow we had to measure up. Near enough was no longer good enough.

Your latest book, Silence, is a collection of fictions. How did you approach the writing of a number of short stories as opposed to a longer novel?
The 29 short prose fictions that comprise Silence were accumulated over a period of eight years. I wrote individual pieces while engaged on other book projects (Love Without Hope and Popeye never told you). In fact there were 50 of them when I finally called a halt in 2010. I then had the enjoyable task of crafting the sequence—teasing out connections and echoes—and reducing , reducing, reducing till the collection came together as a coherent unit. This coherence is one of ‘feel’ rather than rigid structuring. The decision to settle for two sequences of 14 pieces each with one central piece about God only came to me right at the last minute, really.

What should your readers expect to take away from Silence?
Well, the best I can do is quote a few sentences from the reviews of the book that have begun coming in.

‘Silence should be approached with senses attuned to the sounds, images and emotions that are evoked so vividly . . . I came to this book unprepared, and I was completely overwhelmed by the tapestry of its imagery and the echoes of its stillness.’ (Bookseller and Publisher Magazine)

‘Silence is the recurring theme: so many different types of silence; sad, spiritual, contemplative, angry, frightened, a silence inspired by awe and more. I particularly loved the dreaming bird, a haunting piece which almost had me in tears.’ (Timeless Books)

‘Landscapes and characters are painted with economy and yet with such vivacity that the words will linger in your mind long after you have finished reading.’

(Good Reading Magazine)

Are there any central themes that work to connect the fictions within Silence?
Yes, there are themes. One is that our human qualities and vices play out differently in different people, leading sometimes to heroism, sometimes to cruelty. Another is that silence can be a statement of the conscience or, equally, an admission of cowardice. Another is that history finally catches up with us—even if we think we have got away with something the truth will surface. Above all, you cannot stamp out ideas. Other pieces are comic, such as the satire on so-called intellectual property rights (which is another means by which things of value in our lives are reduced to money and commerce).

Silence contains some famous historical voices. Who are some of these voices and what led you to the decision to write in this style?
As a novelist I am always extending my voice by speaking through my characters. In this book I actually use real voices from the past—by imitation—as a means of reconceiving and enlarging the meanings of my material by imaginging how other writers might have expressed it.

What have been the most rewarding experiences during your time as writer?
The most rewarding experiences have been when people tell me about their experience of my books. This has been particularly encouraging when the enthusiasm has come from major writers whose work I admire—such as Salman Rushdie, Shirley Hazzard, Angela Carter, Robertson Davies and so on. Encouraging, because you never can be quite sure you have achieved what you set out to say until somebody shows you that you have.

Having won the Miles Franklin award twice, you’ve obviously led a very successful career as an author. Looking back on this career, what’s one piece of advice that you’d like to offer to aspiring writers?
Look, I don’t think of writing as a career. It’s what I do. It’s like a vocation. A calling. The money is never the thing—and just as well, because there hasn’t been all that much of it. My advice to young writers is to decide what you value and write about that . . . write as intensely as you can . . . put your whole self into it until you forget you are there at all. Don’t worry your head about whether you will get published until you have finished and made your work as perfect as you can. Literature is not a business—it is the expression of what is deeply true in us that we share with others. And we all have depth. We all have the language. The knack, the techniques, can only be picked up by reading. The greater and more challenging the books we read the better our models are and, hopefully, the better our own writing will be.

Q&A with Charlotte Wood

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:29:00 --1000

Charlotte Wood's first novel, Pieces of a Girl, was published in 1999, and won the 1998 Jim Hamilton Award for an unpublished manuscript. Both this and her second novel, The Submerged Cathedral (2004), were highly praised by reviewers and award judges, and the latter was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, SE Asia/Sth Pacific. Her third novel, The Children, received rave reviews and was a bestseller, selling over 10,000 copies in trade paperback. Here she chats to gr about her new novel Animal People.

What did you want to be at 5, 13 and 20 years of age?

At five I wanted to be a grownup; at 13 a grownup window-dresser for David Jones; and at 20 I had no idea, although writing was slowly starting to bubble up inside me.

What prompted you to write your first novel?

My mother had just died and as it does, grief made things clear, separating life into important and unimportant things- it was time to stop daydreaming about writing and start doing it. I just began with a shred of a scene, and my novel grew slowly from that.

What should a reader expect from Animal People?

A 24-hour urban love story. It follows the drifting, disconnected Stephen Connolly through one very bad day in a big city, from home to his job at the zoo and an excruciating workplace teambuilding event, to a child’s birthday party at his girlfriend’s house that goes terribly wrong. I think the novel is about urban anxiety, the weird ways we behave towards animals, and about the difficulty some of us have in accepting love.

Did having three well received books in your literary past, make writing the fourth book a daunting task?

Every book is daunting because one is trying to do something new, and something more creatively challenging than the previous one. But that said, Animal People was a lot of fun in some ways because it’s the first time I have tried to give free rein to humour in a novel, as well as a more tender look at life. City living is so absurd, but also so poignant.

Which writer or writers have astounded you and why?

Too many to mention – but right now I am reading Shirley Hazzard for the first time and am amazed by how much she packs into a few sentences, by her sly humour, her compassion, and her breathtaking confidence – she writes in great sweeping leaps and I’m thoroughly inspired.

Why did you decide to return to a character from your earlier book, The Children, in your new novel Animal People?

Not until quite some time after I’d finished The Children did Stephen occur to me as a character – I knew the next book would be set in a city, and I wanted it to be a one-day book. But I kept being drawn back to thinking of him, I think, because he was the only character in The Children I didn’t completely understand by the time I finished writing that novel. He remained unresolved when the others – Mandy especially – I felt I knew inside out. And in a way – this will sound odd, for a person one has invented – I still worried about him. I wanted to see him through the next stage of his life, and I wanted him not to be so lonely. It is very strange how fictional characters can sort of embed themselves in one’s consciousness almost as if they are real. I think of him as a kind of wayward cousin I’ve always loved, but who inexplicably finds life a bit of a struggle.

When writing, what quirky habit/s do you have?

Nothing really quirky I’m afraid… although I do sometimes have a sleep in the middle of the day if I’ve hit an insurmountable problem or blank spot. Quite often just on falling asleep or waking a solution will come to me.

What literary character have you enjoyed reading about the most?

Too many to mention. I love books that explore the doubts and anxieties and small triumphs of ordinary people.

How do you react to reviews of your books?

It depends on the review! I have largely been lucky but occasionally have had a shocker. It’s hard to shake off the shame that a bad review provokes, even if you think its criticisms unjustified. But you just get over it, and move on. Some critical reviews, if intelligent and respectful, can be very instructive. If this is the case I try to learn from it; I’ve had two or three like this in my career and am grateful for them.

Do you have plans or any idea of your next novel?

Yes, I have a very well formed idea of a setting and some characters, and perhaps a voice, although I’ve barely begun. It all looks so perfect in my head at the moment – and soon that notion will come tumbling down as I get in there and wrestle with it. But I’m excited about starting again. At this stage it’s all beautiful possibility …

q&a with Susan Duncan

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:14:00 --1000

After a 25-year career spanning radio, newspaper and magazine journalism, including editing two of Australia's top selling women's magazines, The Australian Women's Weekly and New Idea, Susan Duncan woke up one morning and chucked in her job. The decision followed the deaths of her husband and brother. After struggling to begin again, she finally found her own patch of paradise on earth only to discover it might already be too late when she was diagnosed with cancer herself.

Today Susan lives with her second husband, Bob, on the shores of Pittwater at Tarrangaua, the beautiful home built for poet Dorothea Mackellar in 1925. She has now turned her hand to fiction, with her first novel THE BRINY CAFE, set in a fictional Pittwater.

Where were you born, raised and schooled?

Born in Albury on the NSW and Victorian border, and spent the first ten years of my life living in nearby Bonegilla Migrant Camp. My father was supply officer there during the huge wave of post war immigration. Later, he bought a country pub about 50 kms outside of Melbourne and I attended Clyde School at Woodend. I went to Monash University to study Arts and Law but dropped out to become a cadet journalist.

What did you want to be when you were 13?

I can’t remember if I had any grand dreams. And if I did, they probably changed day by day.

What did you strongly believe at 20 that you don’t now?

I was very much a black and white person. Now I spend much more time walking the grey middle-line.

What led you to your writing career?

I became a journalist, which was the beginning, but retired quite young (44) after the death of my husband and brother. After I remarried, my husband told me I had to find a hobby beyond cooking because we were growing out of our clothes. He suggested writing and the seed was sown although it took me a while to realise it.

What should a reader expect from The Briny Cafe?

It’s a fictional way of continuing to share Pittwater, it’s quirky characters and dare I say it, our eccentric but rich way of life.

Have you thought about your next story yet?

Oh yes. I’m already typing. I love the process of writing. It’s wonderfully solitary, thoroughly engrossing, often frustrating and infuriating, but I am completely hooked. Not that our waist lines have shrunk as a result…

Was the inspiration behind your book an animal, an experience or a curiosity and what was it?

I met someone who was raised in a boat shed at the water’s edge and I thought he must have had a magical life. The story grew from there.

Which writer or writers have floored or astounded you?

Oh so many…but currently, I’m a huge Kate Atkinson fan. I also loved Deborah Forster’s first book, The Book of Emmet. And I think Liz Bryski writes about women wonderfully.

When writing, what quirky habits do you have?

Before I start a new project, I clean my study like a virago – windows, carpets, cupboards, shelves, computer screen, keyboard – everything. I also toss out all those little bits and pieces we hold onto because we’re not sure what to do with them. When everything is clear of debris and the space sparkles, I sit down to begin. Which is about the moment that I decide the oven has to be cleaned immediately, or the fridge – or anything else that will delay the moment the first few words hit the screen. Because a new project is always utterly terrifying.

What did you intentionally not do when writing your novel, The Briny Cafe?

I resisted giving myself chocolate rewards (well, mostly).

q&a with Najaf Mazari & Robert Hillman

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:25:00 --1000

From the authors of the bestseller

The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif

comes their latest book, The Honey Thief.

A superb collection of spellbinding tales from Afghanistan that portray a vivid landscape of hardship and brotherhood, catastrophes and miracles.Here they share their experiences in writing these books and what we can expect from them next.

Robert: How did you become a writer, in particular of biographies?

When I was a schoolboy a teacher happened to comment in a casual way that my creative writing was very ‘fluent’. I’d never heard the term applied to writing before, and for all I knew the word may not have been a compliment. But I took it as such and my heart swelled with pride. I thought, ‘This is what I’ll do. I’ll write fluently.’ I met that English teacher later in life and reminded him of his comment. He recalled it perfectly. “I hoped you would become a writer,’ he said. ‘And so you have. Well done.’ This was the second compliment I’d received in my life.

When you have taught yourself to write creatively, biography and autobiography is a piece of cake. You employ most of the tricks and dodges and devices of creative writing, but you stick to the facts. Largely.

Robert: How did you find the transition between teaching in high schools and university and becoming a writer?

Most of the writers I know have been writing from a young age. Whatever else you might be doing, the most essential thing is the writing. You might earn a crust as a teacher, as a marine biologist, as a panel beater, but writing is what will make or break you. Once writing has become your fixed star, it is almost impossible to turn your gaze away. George Orwell said that after a certain number of years of professional writing, it is actually harder to stop, whatever disappointments you’ve endured, than to continue.

3) Robert: How did you initially become involved in working with Najaf Mazari?

CaCathi Lewis of Wild Dingo Press introduced me to Najaf five years ago. He was her friend. She said: ‘Najaf, Robert is a writer. He could tell your story.’ Najaf said: ‘Maybe.’ Najaf’s story included many episodes of hardship and suffering. An Hazara will only disclose such suffering to a stranger with reluctance since it might sound as if he were complaining, and the Hazara consider complaining unmanly, no matter how severe the suffering. I visited Najaf in his beautiful rug store in Prahran. He offered me a cup of the oddly flavourless tea that Afghanis enjoy. He asked me to talk about my life. I did, not knowing why I had been asked to do so. Najaf studied me with such intensity that I began to feel frightened. But after a half hour, he held a finger to his lips, suggesting that I should be quiet. Then he reached over the table and took my hand. He said: ‘You are the one.’ Our closeness had continued through the writing of The Honey Thief. Cathi LewisC

Robert: What interests you about the stories of refugees?

After the children-overboard hoax, I began to feel that something was happening in Australia that might leave us all sick with shame in time to come. Our children might one day ask us:

‘But what did you do?’ The opportunity came for me to give a voice to a man who had been

driven from his homeland by the savagery of an implacable enemy, and who had sought refuge in my own homeland. I felt honoured that Najaf had allowed me to tell his story in The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif. But I must say that as I was writing it, my overwhelming priority was to fashion a good book, not to voice my politics.

Najaf: What inspired you to write?

Robert is the writer. I tell him of my experiences and he puts them into words. But if you ask why I wanted to tell Robert of my experiences I must first speak of my friend Robin Bourke. She became my friend when I left the Woomera detention centre ten years ago. My need for a friend was so great. She taught me English and taught me about Australia. She said I must tell my story so that Australians would know the truth. She became a second mother to me. When she read what Robert had written in The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif and The Honey Thief, she said, ‘This is you.’

Najaf: What motivated you to tell the story and tales of the Hazara people?

The Hazara are a tribe. In the world there are many, many tribes. Each tribe has its stories, and the stories want to be told. They want to reach as many ears as possible. A story that is not told will die of loneliness. The stories of the Hazara people are like those of many other tribes, but some things are different. The stories in The Honey Thief will make people say, ‘Now I understand who the Hazara are. Now I understand what makes them different.’

Najaf: How do you think The Honey Thief has helped society, in particular Afghan people, to think differently about the people of your tribe?

I hope that people will love these stories, and I hope that all those who read them will say, ‘The Hazara tell wonderful stories. What interesting people they must be!’

Najaf: How has your life changed since writing The Rugmaker of Mazar-e Sharif and The Honey Thief?

When I first came to Australia I was poor and lonely and my heart was broken. Now I have my

wife and daughter with me to share my life again, and I have a business that is doing well. I am a happy man. But many people back in Afghanistan have not been so fortunate. Income from The Rugmaker and The Honey Thief has permitted me and the friends who help me in Australia to purchase a modern ambulance for my old village in Afghanistan. Very soon, we will build a school. No person can enjoy his happiness if other people are unhappy. It is only when happiness and good fortune are shared that they have any meaning.

What are some of your greatest achievements?

I can tell you only of what gives me happiness. My wife, Hakeema, my daughter, Maria, above all. Then the friends I have made in Australia, especially Robin Bourke, my Australian mother. It gives me pleasure to see my rug shop doing so well. Raising money for the ambulance and the school – that is important. Learning to use my computer properly, and making a Facebook page – I am pleased about that.

Where do you imagine yourself to be in 10 years’ time?

Where I am now, but older and fatter and with more grey hair.

If there was collaboration on a third book what would it be about?

About Afghan traditional rugs, and how they are made, and their history. In the world, hardly anything is more beautiful than a true Afghan traditional rug.

Q&A with Karen Brooks

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:58:00 --1000

Renowned internationally for her work on popular culture, Karen Brooks is also a dynamic and award-winningteacher. She is a weekly columnist for The Courier Mail and an 'expert' on Channel 7's Sunrise and The Morning Show and has appeared on 60 Minutes. She was also a regular on ABC's The Einstein Factor as part of the Brains Trust. Here Karen talks about her new book, Votive, part two in 'The Curse of the Bond Riders' series.

Where were you born, raised and schooled?

I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, in a little apartment in Crows Nest, where I lived with my mother, an Israeli immigrant, and my younger sister, Jenny. I went to Cammeray Primary School and loved it there. It was quite a large school for its time and the teachers were fantastic and very encouraging of creativity. Drama was important as was writing and stretching the boundaries of your imagination. I read a great deal and used to spend all my pocket money and too much time in St Vincent De Paul, where I would buy second hand books. I had the full collection of Enid Blyton books and later, C.S. Lewis and so many others. I would also play with other kids on the street where I lived. We would clamber over fences, build cubby houses and play cricket and never venture home until the street lights came on, that was our cue to leave. My mother was married a total of eight times so, it’s no surprise that for many complex reasons, we went to live with our father and step-mother and, as a consequence, changed schools quite a bit. Later, I went to North Sydney Girls High School for one year, then to Hornsby Girls High. I also spent a year and two terms at Tweed River High on the Gold Coast. I finished my schooling at Hornsby Girls High where I was elected, much to my sister’s chagrin, Head Prefect. I was one of those kids who loved school and the entire learning environment. I should add, a constant in my life was my German grandmother, who instilled in me a love of myths and fairytales as well as musicals.

What did you want to be when you were 13?

I wanted to be an actor. Not the Hollywood starlet you see today, but one with substance and longevity! Theatre was my great passion. That dream didn’t change until I auditioned for NIDA at 17, was asked back for a re-audition and didn’t make the cut. I was told I would get in the following year, but twelve months is a long time when you’re a teenager so, after trying university (Sydney University) and dropping out, I joined the army as an officer instead. I swear my acting was what enabled me to pass all the tests. I ‘acted’ like an officer. J It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that my dreams of the stage evolved or dissolved and I went into education – a career I’ve loved.

What did you strongly believe at 15 that you don’t now?

Gosh, that’s a hard question as I think life experiences change your beliefs and ideas about things so much. But, if I had to name one that has changed, it’s the fallibility of parents. I used to think my father could do anything except be wrong. I learned that’s not true and, in doing so, learned to be more generous about his faults.

I also believed that wishing hard for something would make it happen. I quickly learned that you have to put in effort as well J

What led you to your writing career?

In many ways it evolved very slowly. I wrote a children’s play when I was 20 and it enjoyed two seasons at Marian St Theatre in Sydney, which was wonderful and firmly planted the idea that this was something I thoroughly appreciated – the translating of ideas onto a page that is not only shared, but has the potential to transport others and give them pleasure/move them out of their comfort zones/enable them to escape their lives for a time. When I did my Ph.D., I used to creative write as a sort of balm for the heavy-duty academic reading and writing in which I was engaged. From that, I had a few short stories published. Part of the job of being an academic is to contribute to knowledge culture by getting published, so I would beaver away on intense and meaningful articles (!) of around five to seven thousand words, which were published internationally and, if I was lucky, attracted two or three readers. It wasn’t till I began writing a column in Brisbane’s Courier Mail (Wednesday’s opinion piece), and picking up some freelance work with other publications, that I found an outlet for writing that was both imaginative and yet turned a critical eye upon culture and found a wide readership. At the same time, I began writing novels with the intention that ‘one-day I’ll….’. My dear friend, the writer, Sara Douglass, was the one who finally spurred me. Fed up with my constant refrain, she said, ‘Stop saying you’re gonna’ do it and just DO it.’ I listened. I did. I am forever grateful to her. She has been an inspiration and amazing support.

What should a reader expect from The Curse of the Bond Riders series?

What a writer expects a reader will take from a book and what they actually do, don’t always coincide J Seriously, I hope they discover a story that allows them to escape into a world that is both strange and familiar, that they invest in and care about characters who are worthy of their time and commitment. I would hope that they’re transported to a fantasy equivalent of Fifteenth Century Venice and into the lives of, firstly a young, confused candle maker who, as the series progresses, discovers a capacity for great cruelty and kindness, who is both betrayed in unspeakable ways and yet forges ahead to meet destiny.

Frankly, I don’t like to tell readers what to expect or build up expectations, but I sincerely hope they will share with me what they take away from the series.

What do you want a reader to take away from the second novel, Votive?

Above all, the desire to read the final book in the series! J

I would love readers to feel that the stakes are higher in this book and to have them on the edge of their seats. Early feedback tells me that’s the case – so that’s lovely to know. While Votive is the sequel to Tallow, it’s wider in scope in that other places and people are introduced – many of whom are historically accurate. In this book, Tallow has been taken under the wing of the corrupt Maleovelli family. Under their roof, she slowly sheds her old identity as a candle maker’s apprentice and becomes Tarlo Maleovelli, a beautiful courtesan with a deadly secret. The reader follows her transformation from callow youth, to beautiful courtesan to cold-hearted assassin and learns more about her amazing abilities and why she’s both feared and desired. In the meantime, powerful forces stir within the world, all of whom seek Tallow and what she can do for them. Only to late will she realise they hold the key to her survival and the one thing she cannot possibly resist….

Was the inspiration behind your series an animal, an experience or a curiosity and what was it?

An experience. I walked into a new candle shop in my area to purchase some candles. The scents, the flickering flames, the dusky colours, and the pockets of shadows all created a wonderful sensual ambience that immediately transported me. When I made my purchase, a small pamphlet was placed in the bag. In the car on the way home, I began reading it. It explained, in very basic terms, how scents were infused in candles in ancient times. I turned to my husband and said: ‘I’ve just had a great idea for a book…’

Which writer or writers have floored or astounded you?

There are so many. Shirley Hazzard, Charmian Clift, Virginia Woolf, Lian Hearn, Sara Douglass, Feodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, Geraldine Brooks (no relation), Kate Morton, Shakespeare, John Keats, William Blake, Elizabeth George, Peter Ackroyd, Graeme Turner, Kirstyn McDermott, Angela Slatter, Anthony Eaton, Katherine Howell, Kim Wilkins, Richard Harland, Claire Corbett, Marina Warner and so many others. I keep discovering brilliant new and old ones who make me suffer word-envy. I feel like they’re treasures I want to share with the world.

When writing, what quirky habit/s do you have?

Not too many… I think. I play classical music, light candles, talk to myself as the characters, act out scenes that are emotional in order to get hand gestures and facial expressions right… Actually, this is a little embarrassing! I also wear Ugg Boots when I write. OH, and I have a favourite cardigan that I wear, even in the heat – I simply turn up the air-conditioner. I also flick between writing the novel, Facebook and email… my (in)sanity checks.

What did you intentionally not do when writing your novel, Votive?

Upgrade my system. I am too afraid I will lose the material. I also didn’t go to the hairdressers so, by the end of the writing phase, I looked like Grizzly Adams – without the beard but with gray roots.J In fact, I’ve had a new computer sitting in a box for three weeks now, which I refuse to unpack until the third book, Illumination, is safely with the publisher. I will edit on the new computer, but I’m too worried to transfer files mid-book, so tolerate a clunky system till then. Towards the end of the book, in the manic phase, I also don’t respond to emails or pay bills… then I spend the day after the manuscript departs apologizing and depleting the bank account. I have some very tolerant and understanding friends – never mind my beloved partner and family!

Paul Elwork shares some secrets!

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:02:00 --1000

Paul Elwork lives in Philadelphia and is the father of two sons. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Philadelphia Stories, Short Story America, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Word Riot. His novel The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead is out now and here he talks to gr about his inspirations and writing.

Where were you born, raised and schooled?

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and have lived in Philadelphia or the immediate surrounding area my whole life. I graduated from Northeast High School, Temple University (undergraduate), and Arcadia University (graduate).

What did you want to be when you were 13?

Two things: a writer and a musician. I only play around with the guitar once in a great while—and as a result, I’m pretty much a hack at it—but the writer part stayed with me and became my single true goal by the time I was in college.

What did you strongly believe at 15 that you don’t now?

When I was 15, I believed in ghosts. I spent my whole childhood being fascinated with stories of hauntings, and I wanted to believe in ghosts very much. I’ve always loved science and I was a pretty flinty skeptic about most things by the time I was 15 (or thought I was), but I had made this little cul-de-sac in my worldview for ghosts because the romance of the notion captivated me. Now I’m the guy who wrote a novel full of ghostly elements but no literal ghosts.

What led you to your writing career?

So many things, obviously—so many books and writers. I do remember that for me reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit at around the age of 12 was a revelation. Up until then, I loved books and read every chance I got, but I remember that book made me feel like I wanted to spend my life telling stories.

What should a reader expect from The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead?

A compelling story, I hope; characters with complex emotional and psychological histories. I tried to write a novel that would do justice to the complications of belief, grief, and the longing for forgiveness.

What do you want a reader to take away from your novel?

I hope that readers will come away haunted by the characters and the moral ambiguity of belief, for believers and deceivers.

Was the inspiration behind your book an animal, an experience or a curiosity?

The novel came together from two direct sources of inspiration: the true story of the Fox sisters and Glen Foerd on the Delaware, a riverside estate on the outskirts of Philadelphia. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Fox sisters of upstate New York convinced people in their home, their neighborhood, and—eventually—across America and Europe that they were communicating with the dead through rapping noises actually created by cracking joints in their toes and ankles. I discovered their story while still in high school, in a passage from Carl Sagan’s book, Broca’s Brain.

Years later, I started volunteering at Glen Foerd and got interested in the history of the estate and the garden house there, which had been converted into a play house for the children. I thought of the confidences that must have been exchanged in the garden play house, and the story of the Fox sisters attached itself to this notion in my mind. I placed my story in the 1920s to follow World War I, recast the characters, and fictionalized everything.

Which writer or writers have floored or astounded you?

So, so many. I’m amazed by the impact and brevity of James Salter’s prose, his capacity to capture powerful emotional moments in a few lines. Kurt Vonnegut’s writing amazes me—a master of a humorous, conversational style with deep moral depths. Flannery O’Connor’s short stories astound me; you’re not going to find a more unflinching encounter with reality in fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction, though more tender in many ways than O’Connor’s, also has this quality of unflinching honesty. Scott Smith’s novel The Ruins floored me in telling a story of only a few days in a span of over 800 pages without a dull moment—all while providing textured, human characters rather than automatons to further the plot.

When writing, what quirky habit/s do you have?

I have the tendency to redraft as I go, rather than write a whole draft and then rework it. My way has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of having a more directed go at the first draft when it’s completed is one I can’t seem to part with, even though this method slows me down.

What did you intentionally not do when writing your novel?

I tried to avoid making my believers seem to be simple dupes, people laughably lacking the intelligence to protect them from charlatans. I don’t think it’s simply a matter of smart or dumb. Every person—even people who consider themselves skeptics like myself—navigates through life mostly on belief and guesswork, since there are so few things we can know for certain. Also, I think belief is a matter mostly of emotional psychology, both individual and cultural, and that we often choose (consciously and subconsciously) what we accept and buy into as believers. The messy humanity of it is in the details.