Meet the Author: Ouyang Yu

Ouyang Yu is an award-winning poet and novelist. His first novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, won the 2004 South Australian Festival Award for Innovation in Writing. His third novel, The English Class, won the 2011 NSW Premier’s Award, and his 14th collection of poetry, Terminally Poetic (2020), won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Book in the 2021 Queensland Literary Awards.

He was shortlisted for the Writer’s Prize in the 2021 Melbourne Prize for Literature and won the Fellowship from Creative Australia in late 2021 for writing a documentary novel, now complete in three volumes. And his eighth novel, All the Rivers Run South, was published in December 2023 by Puncher & Wattmann, which is also publishing his ninth novel, The Sun at Eight or Nine in mid-2024, and his first collection of short stories, The White Cockatoo Flowers, was out in early 2024 with Transit Lounge Publishing.

His website: www.huangzhouren.com and his blog: youyang2.blogspot.com

Author Insight

Why do you write? This is like asking why do you breathe? I write, therefore I am.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? I would be teaching and/or translating.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? I don’t know. Every book I wrote tends to be hard to get published despite my best intentions and efforts.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? Producing my best work in one go without changing a single word.

—the worst? Don’t really know, actually. All the stuff that I’ve written that remains unpublished may not be the worst except that it may take years, and posthumously, to get it seen or read. In that sense, that may be ‘the worst’ part of it.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? That’s an impossible question because if I were starting out now I had already published so much and known so much; I’d approach the whole thing very differently from before. But it would be the same as what I keep telling my writing students: Write daily and submit it everywhere. Anything unpublishable now may be published over time, possibly decades after.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? No idea. But even if I started now, I’d start from zero and there’s no one giving any advice, one having only one’s own heart to follow.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? ‘There is no money in poetry,’ from a writer friend. And yet, I produce it daily.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? When I was young, I either wrote or didn’t. There was no such block. As I’m getting old, I don’t have any writer’s block. Writing always finds me writing, anytime, anywhere, even in sleep.

How do you deal with rejection? I write about it. Refer to my book of poetry, Terminally Poetic. There are heaps of poems about rejection.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Imaginative, poetic, and philosophical.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? E. M. Cioran and Samuel Beckett. It’s the darkest of their thoughts that keep moving me but I don’t need them to tell me how to live a writing life; no one can however good they are.

Book Byte

On The White Cockatoo Flowers, a Self-review

                                    by Ouyang Yu

1. From memory, ‘The Wolves from the North’ is the first story I got published in English in Australia. It was published in Australian Short Stories, no. 52, 1995, pp. 29-35.

2. And ‘The White Cockatoo Flower’ was my second story published in English, included in Influence: Australian Voices, edited by Peter Skrzynecki and published by Transworld Publishing, 1997, pp. 171-9.

3. Even though they were published in English, they were in fact originally written in Chinese, my native tongue, much earlier, and then I self-translated them into English.

4. This can be seen from the following fact that the two stories had been published in Chinese in a Shanghai-based literary magazine, Fiction World, both in 1994, the first one in No. 2, and the second in No. 5.

One short story, ‘bai yingwuhua’ (The White Cockatoo Flower) [《白鹦鹉花》], xiaoshuo jie (Fiction World) ) [《小说界》] (Shanghai), no. 5, 1994, pp. 174-7, and donghua shibao (Chinese Herald) [《东华时报》] (Sydney), 7-12 March, 1995, p. 11.

One short story, ‘beifang de lang’ (Wolves from the North) [《北方的狼》], published in xiaoshuo jie (Fiction World) [《小说界》] (Shanghai), No., 2, 1994, pp. 183-186.

5. The rest of the collection, except the novella at the end, was written in English, my father tongue if the Chinese is my mother tongue, written across a span of some two decades before they were submitted and finally accepted and published by the Transit Lounge Publishing, my favourite publisher who had previously published my collection of poetry, Self Translation (2012), The English Class (2010) and, later, Billy Sing (2017).

6. Island, the novella, was originally written in Chinese in the late 1980s in Shanghai where I was studying at a university for my MA degree in Australian literature. It was not till I arrived in Australia in the early 1990s and began my PhD studies at La Trobe University that I began self-translating it into English. The self-translation had gone into many drafts over the years, and the original Chinese manuscript had also been submitted to magazines or journals in the Chinese-speaking world.

7. It was not till 2016 that it was published in China, as the following details show,

One novella, ‘Dao’ (Island)［岛］, published in The Triangular Mainsail ([Sanjiao Fan] Chinese title:《三角帆》), winter 2016, pp. 59-85.

8. Thanks to Barry’s kindness, its self-translated version was included in the final publication so that, in a way, this collection could be said to be a semi-self-translated fictional counterpart of Self Translation of poetry except that the two short stories were written in Australia.

9. These three self-translations remind me of Samuel Beckett’s three novels, Molloy, Malone and The Unnameable as they were first written in French and were later self-translated by him into English.

10. There’s a number of short stories published in Australia and elsewhere, such as Canada and Singapore; they are ‘She’ll be right’ (Canada), ‘A Christmas Gift’ (Singapore), ‘The Red Packets’ (Australia) and ‘The Australian Way’ (Westerly, No. 53, 2008, pp. 157-160).

Oops, the last one seems to have somehow gone missing in this collection. Perhaps an oversight on my part that I shall make up for in my next collection if ever there is a chance.

Buy the book here.

Meet the Author: Donna M Cameron

Write for yourself, from that burning place in your heart, that need to know something. That’s the secret to staying in the moment and enjoying the process or the journey.

Donna M Cameron

Donna M Cameron is a playwright and AWGIE nominated radio dramatist who now writes novels. Her debut, Beneath the Mother Tree (2018, MidnightSun) was listed as a top Australian fiction read in The Advertiser’s yearly round up and was selected for the 2019 QWC/Screen QLD’s Adaptable program. The manuscript of The Rewilding won her a KSP Fellowship, was runner up in a Writing NSW award and gained her a 2021 Varuna Fellowship. Donna was recently accorded a Regional Arts Development Fund grant to work on her third novel, Bloomfield.

https://linktr.ee/donnamcameronwriter

https://www.dmcameron.com/

Author insight

Why do you write?

To understand a question that is haunting me, and I mean haunting me to the point where I can’t sleep at night. Why else would you write a book? All those hours, months, years of work… I need to be driven by a need to understand. With ‘The Rewilding’ the burning question was – ‘Is there hope in the face of anthropogenic climate change?’

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer?

Sitting in the corner of a padded room rocking back and forth, twirling my finger in my hair, dribbling and talking to myself.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published?

For this book, finding an agent (and then a publisher) who wasn’t scared of the C words – climate change.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover?

I’ve been very involved. And yes, I did have input into that magnificent cover. Barry Scott is the most respectful, inclusive publisher. It has been a waking dream to be published by Transit Lounge.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life?

The big magic, as Elizabeth Gilbert calls it. With any creative pursuit, you’re working with the imagination, tapping into the archetypal subconscious, so ‘big magic’ happens all the time if you keep an eye out for it. It’s like little miracles. For example, one morning when I was working on The Rewilding, (this was at the height of #metoo, and #blacklivesmatter), I began to fret that no one would be interested in my privileged, white male protagonist. So much so, I had to flee the desk and go for a walk to try and gain control of the negative thoughts screaming in my head, thoughts like – ‘No publisher will want this book. I’m going to have to change the sex of my protagonist. etc’ At the height of this mini-crisis, I happened to look up and there, in a national park in the middle of nowhere, was the name of my protagonist – Jagger – scrawled on a rock. I stood there and laughed, and all my worries floated away. To me – that’s big magic.  

—the worst?

My failing eyesight! From too much reading and writing, I’m sure of it.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer?

I would have started writing novels sooner. Originally an actress, I fell into playwriting accidentally, then I moved into writing for radio, (when Radio National had a dedicated radio drama department), mainly because in radio you weren’t just stuck writing dialogue. You could move between dialogue and internal voice, which is similar to what happens in a novel, except in radio you’re writing for the ear. When I wrote my first book, Beneath the Mother Tree, I finally felt like I had found my form.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author?

That the industry standard of payment is ten percent of retail price. That was a huge shock. I still wonder how this situation came into being and why writers don’t unite and rise up to demand a higher royalty. I think it’s because the urge to write comes from a different place – we’re not driven by money.

What’s the best advice you were ever given?

When I moved out of home at 17, my dad put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’ve only got one piece of advice for you…don’t ever feel sorry for yourself.’ I can’t tell you how those words of wisdom have helped me at different moments over the years, through broken hearts, through endless rejections that accompany any creative life, through periods of poverty, and ironically, through the grief over his death when it came a couple of years ago.

What’s your top tip for aspiring authors?

I’ve only written three books (and I’m still working on the third) so I’m no expert, but I would say – write for yourself, from that burning place in your heart, that need to know something. That’s the secret to staying in the moment and enjoying the process or the journey. Any other reason, in the pursuit of accolades or in the hope that you might make money, will set you up for disappointment and unhappiness. Even if you win an award or make money, there will always be other writers who will win more awards or bigger awards, who will make more money etc…those things can’t be seen as the goal, just lovely side-benefits that surprise and delight if they happen. It’s all about the joy and wonder of the moment in the act of writing.

How important is social media to you as an author?

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Some days, after spending hours alone in front of a computer, I can’t wait to go online and connect with friends and readers, but other days I resent the time I need to spend ‘maintaining my author platform.’ I would love to reach a point where my books sell themselves…so I could just have fun with it, Margaret Atwood style. She posts very occasionally…usually some hilarious picture…like riding an electric scooter on her 80^th birthday. She rocks the socials. And so she should. She’s done the hard yards.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it?

Not really, but if the writing feels too gluggy, I garden or go for a bushwalk with a notebook and pencil in my pocket. It isn’t long before it starts flowing again.

How do you deal with rejection?

If they’ve read it, I ask for feedback and keep working on it. They’re nearly always right. (I have a bad habit of sending work out too early)! If they reject it on the pitch, I work on my pitch and then send it out again.

In three words, how would you describe your writing?

Nature-centric, lyrical, genre-bending.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life?

If I could spend an hour with Tim Winton, I would ask him to expand further on something I heard him say in an interview recently. He spoke of how he believes, because of the climate emergency, our function as storytellers has changed, that we now have a responsibility to sound the alarm, to call to action, to change the narrative to one of hope. ‘No more bread and circuses’ were his exact words. I’d like to ask him about ‘bread and circuses.’ And I’d try not to cry. I had the pleasure of meeting him recently for the first time, (in a signing line, so we only had a minute), but we spoke briefly of hope in the face of climate change and to my utter embarrassment I started to cry. He simply reached across the table and held my hand in kindness. He’s the real deal. And what a wordsmith!   

Book byte

An exhilarating and unforgettable love song for our world. Heartbroken and in fear for his life, corporate whistle blower,
Jagger Eckerman, escapes to hide out in a remote cave, but kick-arse radical, Nia Moretti, is furious a ‘capitalist suit’ has
taken over her cave. It is hatred at first sight.
Yet Nia is hiding for reasons of her own, ones that drag Jagger closer to death as they are forced on the run together and he is unwittingly pulled deeper into Nia’s reckless mission to help save the planet. But who can save Jagger from the relentless pursuit of the man who wants him dead?
Both an electrifying cat-and-mouse-chase and an odd couple love story, The Rewilding captures the essence of what it
means to be alive today in this cusp of change pulsing with possibilities.
It is a passionate intimation of hope.

Buy the book here.

Meet the Author: Tracy Ryan

You are a writer if you write. Don’t let people make you feel you’re not a writer because you haven’t published, or published much. Everybody starts there. Nobody is born with published books already under their belt. The writing is what makes a writer.

Tracy Ryan

Tracy Ryan was born in Western Australia and grew up there as part of a large family. She has taught literature, creative writing and film at various universities in Australia and in England, and worked as a bookseller, editor and translator. She currently lives in Germany, where she has been teaching fiction writing at the University of Tübingen. Her poetry has won many awards. Her most recent collection is Rose Interior (Giramondo 2022), and she is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. Claustrophobia, her fourth novel was published by Transit Lounge in 2014 and by Newton Compton Editori as Una vita tranquilla in 2015. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Western Australian Premier’s Awards. Tracy was the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Fellowship winner in 2023. Tracy speaks German, French and Italian as well as English. The Queen’s Apprenticeship is the first in a series of three novels focused on the Queens of Navarre.

Author Website: no website, but a blog about the writing of this novel at

https://renaissancefrancenovel.weebly.com/

and a shared blog (with John Kinsella) at http://poetsvegananarchistpacifist.blogspot.com/

Author Insight

Why do you write? I write because I can’t help it, because it’s part of how I make sense of the world (to the extent that I can!) and process experiences I’ve had or observed. I also write because I read – writing to me has always seemed like a dialogue or conversation with other books.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? Teaching and learning other languages, most likely. And translating. All of which have been connected to my life as a writer anyway. It’s hard for me to imagine a life without writing at the centre of it. And reading.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? I can’t complain of obstacles, though I know many people do face them. A common obstacle is the internal one – not believing you can accomplish something. Once you get past that (if you do), you have to try to make the pathways, if they don’t seem to be there. Coming from Western Australia, which when I was growing up was a very isolated place (and still is, physically), you had to refuse to let isolation be an obstacle. That’s true for many parts of Australia, even in the digital era.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? Working with Transit Lounge as an author you feel you are interacting on every level about your book. I’m not a cover designer, but it’s still great to get to see the options for the cover and give an opinion as they are being considered. The copy-editing process was enormously helpful too. Even with typesetting, there was generosity and care in the effort, for instance, to reproduce the visual look and layout of the manuscript. Since the story of The Queen’s Apprenticeship connects with the history of writing and printing in 16^th-century France, that visual effect was important; I’m grateful for the way the pages have turned out to enhance the reading experience.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? I’ve said it before: when a book is completed. There are moments when I feel I’ll never get there, and yet this is my sixth published novel, so somehow evidently I do! The other “best aspect” is when you see warm responses from readers. I don’t mean just reviews – I mean when somebody writes or says that your book has been really meaningful to them. Even one of those can make the tougher times worthwhile.

—the worst? When you feel you can’t write a word. (And yet, eventually, you do.)

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? Despite all the changes in technology since I started (I first published in the 1970s!), many things are not that different: you still need to maintain self-belief and read a lot, as well as commit regular time (or reasonable time!) not only to the actual writing, but maybe to journaling, daydreaming, researching. Many of those things are made easier now with access to the internet. But they are the same elements.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? Quite a few things – but that it was a perfectly valid choice. Too many people tell those with creative aspiration that it’s not practical, you won’t succeed, etc (my family were not negative about it, but along the way other people sometimes were!). On the other hand, I was told many useful things from a very young age. Hearing when I was fourteen, at a young writers’ event, that even very established writers deal with frequent rejection helped me keep that in perspective.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? This will change each time I’m asked. However, for writers: Perseverance wears away stone. Sometimes given as the image of dripping water hollowing out stone. Just the idea that keeping at something, rather than huge force, will have the desired effect.

How important is social media to you as an author? Other than occasional blogging, I don’t directly use social media. I know it’s useful for many, but I think I would get really distracted from work – it’s so time-consuming!

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? I do. I try to overcome it by doing something else that’s somehow related to writing: doing research, or translating; watching a movie that might be in the same genre, or whatever. If it’s not a serious block, something like a walk in the fresh air, a complete change of scene or bodily posture, can sometimes restart things. Longer-term blocks are harder, but it’s still about believing they will eventually go away. They are not external to being a writer; they belong to the process.

How do you deal with rejection? I try to decide what I can learn from it or why it happened. And then I get back to what I’m working on. It’s never fun to have something rejected, but there’s no option other than “keep going” if you actually want to remain a writer. Rejections happen for many reasons, not always the ones we think. They can derail you for a time, but you have to cope with that.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? For this book, The Queen’s Apprenticeship: curious, imaginative, passionate.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life?

This changes from time to time! Having written this novel about the 16^th-century Queen Marguerite of Navarre, I’d have to nominate her – she wrote letters, poems, plays, and amazing tales. Her book of tales The Heptameron is one of the weirdest and funniest I’ve ever read. She planned to include a hundred tales like Boccaccio’s Decameron, but only 72 have remained because it wasn’t finished when she died.

I’d like her to tell me just how she managed to write so much with her busy life as the sister of one king and wife of another! Though enjoying the highest privilege, she still had to struggle with expectations of women in her era, and with fearsome censorship for her unconventional views on religion. Her unique personality comes across vividly in her writing and, I hope, in the way I’ve depicted her in this novel.

Book Byte

The Queen’s Apprenticeship

Tracy Ryan/Published by Transit Lounge

Two women from different worlds in Renaissance France cross paths in a way that changes both their lives.
One is Marguerite de Navarre, a king’s sister. Powerful, privileged and widely admired, Marguerite must nonetheless marry where she is told to, regardless of her feelings, and – despite the thrilling new ideas of religious reform causing upheaval in France – must toe the line for the good of her brother’s kingdom. Ever a risk-taker, she does what she can to protect her reformist friends. But she has always loved to write, and when disaster strikes in her personal life, she picks up her pen – but some of what she writes will get her into trouble.

The other is a cast out, itinerant child who longs to be a printer like her late father. Jehane goes dressed as a male by the name of Josse, at first for safety’s sake and then by choice, fending off the risks of being alone, unprotected and born female, poor but trying to live in freedom. Eventually Josse joins a group of printers and publishers in Paris. Despite her suspicion of men, she comes to idolise one among them. But can they be ‘true friends’, and can she share her whole self with him?

Long before #MeToo, women were telling their ‘unspeakable’ stories, and these two, both rich and poor, are no exception. They come together in the most unexpected of ways.

In The Queen’s Apprenticeship one of our very best writers brings to fully realised and magnificent life a world of drama and intrigue.

Transit Lounge

An enthralling novel of passion, literature and power, bringing to vivid life the story of Marguerite de Navarre – an ardent defender of the arts – and in doing so also giving voice to those who were often disregarded in the dramas of the time.

Dominique Wilson, author of Orphan Rock and The Yellow Papers

‘

Buy the book here.

Meet the Author: Rishikesh Upadhyay

Rishikesh Upadhyay, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, researcher and author. His research and teaching work has focused largely on the environmental physiology of plants and chemistry. He has to his credit three years of post-graduate teaching experience at Assam University, India, and is the author of three books. He is a recipient of the UGC Research Fellowship Award, the Pencraft Literary Excellence Award, the Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Elsevier Science Reviewer Recognition Award. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Plant Environmental Physiology and Chemistry in the Department of Botany at Haflong Government College, India.

Author insight

Why do you write? Writings, doing research works and teachings makes me feel more alive, deeply experience things, and able to tell your thoughts/ stories to the world. And, genuine writing is so powerful. It can change someone’s life.

What inspired your interest in the environmental physiology of plants? How did your career path come about? Well… I’m not sure where interest came from. When I taught biochemistry, environmental science, stress biology, or Botany at the university or at a local government college, my lectures were like stories for the students. It has simply gone with the flow of thoughts and my writings. I knew I wanted to write about plants and their environment. From there, it just took shape.

What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t researching, teaching, and writing? I would love to be a Scientist or Psychologist since the idea of observing or looking into plant’s or people’s lives, reading about their behaviour is just mesmerising.

What do you hope readers will take from your newest publication The Life of Plants in a Changing Environment? My latest and fourth book, released on 1^st January, 2022, is The Life of Plants in a Changing Environment.  Plants experience disturbances due to environmental changes, either in biotic or abiotic form, during their life cycle. Non-heritable modifications in morphological, physiological or biochemical characteristics tend to reduce or decrease growth and productivity, and sometimes lead to death. The book is all about the life of plants and their adaptation to different environments. It presents an exhaustive overview of the specific effects and modifications that could occur in this regards, and will serve to consolidate the ideas to promote standardisation of plant adaptation to these changes in the environment.

Please share your writing process with us. Do you have a set daily routine? As you know it’s very hard to get yourself or anyone back in that zone of thinking about the imaginative world or idea that’s in your mind. During the day, I work at a local government college, and by night I pour my imagination and ideas out onto a page. I believe in and write about plants and their environment.

What’s your chosen reading genre? I want something that educates me, and better yet, teaches me something good. I pick those books by the author rather than the content sometimes. And the best stories have something to say. That’s important to me.

Any regret till date? Yes, I don’t have good photographs or videos or letters or emails saved from my late father. Unfortunately, he died before smartphones were a thing.

Anything else you want to tell our readers, and the writing community? Be ready for a lot of rejection. But, think before you start writing anything!

Book Byte

Plants experience stress due to environmental changes, either in biotic or abiotic form, during their life cycle. Non-heritable modifications in morphological, physiological or biochemical characteristics tend to reduce or decrease growth and productivity, and sometimes lead to death. This book presents an exhaustive overview of the specific effects and modifications that could occur in this regard, and will serve to consolidate the ideas to promote standardization of plant adaptation to these changes in the environment. This book returns to the facts of both biotic and abiotic stress, detailing an essential aspect of plant life in the context of stress response. The text is a comprehensive, current reference that effectively addresses issues and concerns related to plant stress in natural environments. Although many reference books about abiotic stress and other environmental stresses have been published, they all exist in relative isolation from one another, covering only one specific topic. This book is, rather, a comprehensive review of all aspects of the responses of plants to changes in the environment.

Follow Rishikesh Upadhyay on

Twitter     https://twitter.com/RKUpadhy

Linkedin   http://www.linkedin.com/in/rishikesh-upadhyay

Google Scholar     https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h232zIsAAAAJ

Meet the Author: Brett Jenkins

Brett’s top tip for aspiring authors: Get started and keep at it. Very few people are born brilliant writers and we only improve our writing by writing. And read widely, learn from others, imitate (everyone is imitating to some degree) whilst maintaining your own voice. 

Brett Jenkins is a Western Australian writer with a PhD from Murdoch University in English and Comparative Literature. In 2019 he published an autobiography entitled A Boy Miner: Tales from the Australian Underground which tells the story of the four years he worked FIFO before making the shift into studying literature. His debut novel The Nostalgia Detective was released this month.

Author insight

What inspired you to write your debut novel? There were several inspirations for me to write my debut novel, the first being that I had just self-published my memoir A Boy Miner which was about my mining days. This gave me the confidence to attempt writing a novel. The inspiration for the subject matter of the novel came from my own experience turning 40 and reflecting on what became of the teens of the early ’90s grunge era.

Have you always wanted to be an author? I think so, although I didn’t always feel that I had what it takes. Of course I enjoy literature, particularly theoretical engagement and I earned a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. This also gave me the desire to start writing myself. I very much have a humanities brain and writing is the best way of getting those ideas out there.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? I am self-published so the biggest obstacle is seeing the book to its completion, and committing not only money but time and energy, and imposing reasonable limits on these factors. This is the delicate balance for self-publishers.  

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? I was involved in every aspect of developing my book. I used the Ingram Spark book building tool which took a little time to get used to. For my memoir A Boy Miner, I had Judith and Kevin from Crotchet Quaver design the cover and put the book together and they did an amazing job. However, for my novel I tried to do it myself to save on costs, given that I was self-publishing and I wasn’t expecting to cover these costs. The cover design was my own: a photo of a flannelette shirt of mine.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? Seeing the story come together, finding clever ways of making the story move, and impressing myself by little things in my writing, a turn of phrase, for example. The other aspect is being encouraged by those who have read and enjoyed my work. You should write for yourself, but it is lovely to hear from others who have connected with your work.

—the worst? Very much the doubt I have in myself, especially following rejections from publishing houses.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? I’m not sure I ever started as a writer – maybe bad teenage angst poetry written in my lever arch file during chemistry classes. If I had never written before, then I would join more writing groups and get out into the writing community and enjoy the camaraderie of the other writers, both new and experienced.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? There are a lot of great writers out there so don’t expect immediate success. Writing is labour and any successful first novel is never an ‘overnight’ success. There are many small successes and failures along the way and there are no shortcuts. 

What’s the best advice you were ever given? This advice comes from my undergrad days and it is to always consider what your reader is comprehending from your work. You write it, you understand it, but will your reader? This doesn’t mean spelling everything out, only that you need to ensure the reader understands what you want them to understand.

How important is social media to you as an author? I am not great at social media and have only recently joined Instagram with limited success. I think networking is just as important, meeting people, going to events, engaging the community of writers, learning from them about what works and what doesn’t.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? I’m not sure I experience ‘writer’s’ block in a traditional sense but I also don’t force myself to write even when I don’t feel like it. This does work for some and I wouldn’t not try it again. I mostly stop writing because I am frustrated by my writing skills and question whether it is worth it – I should be cleaning the house more, looking for a ‘proper’ job (I didn’t look at my draft for six months because of my doubts). For the most part, I wait for inspiration, which happens exclusively when I am not at my computer, and then I am excited and involved again and the words begin to flow.   

How do you deal with rejection? Not well, but I expect it also. My writing is not necessarily at the level it needs to be to cause a stir, and the subject matter is not always what WA publishers are looking for. It hurts also because there is a sense of legitimacy that comes from being traditionally published, something that is lacking when you self-publish.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Challenging, honest, surprising (hopefully)

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? This is a very tough question. Many of the writers I like are difficult people and would possibly be unpleasant to spend an hour with. I’m thinking of Charles Bukowski, for example, and maybe Virginia Woolf. Either Annie Proulx or Cormac McCarthy would be my choice and ask them about where lived experience and fictional representation begins and ends.

Book Byte

From an Albany hospital bed, John, a stay-at-home dad and casual private detective, tells the story of his attempt to find Richie Curtz, a white middle-aged man, missing now for over a month. Despite several probable leads, the official investigation has stalled. But John, the Nostalgia Detective, suspects the most promising lead has so far been overlooked: the connection between Richie’s ‘last seen wearing’ grunge-era outfit, his upcoming fortieth birthday, and the recent death of a 1990s musical icon. The search takes John from Perth to the greater South West of Western Australia, as he traces the history of a man who leaves very few traces, all the while dealing with his own anxieties, paranoia, Gen-X cynicism, and some unwelcome intrusions from the past.

The Nostalgia Detective is available as hardcopy or eBook from online retailers including Amazon. Alternatively, email the author at brett.jenkins78@gmail.com

Meet the Author Sharon Giltrow

Sharon’s top tip for aspiring authors: Become a member of a critique group. It is not only important for making your stories better, but also as a support group. You need someone who has your back and can lift you up when you’re having doubts. I love my critique group.

Sharon Giltrow grew up in South Australia, the youngest of eight children, surrounded by pet sheep and fields of barley. She now lives in Perth, WA with her husband and two children. Sharon has taught for all of her career and she now teaches young children with Developmental Language Disorder.

Her humorous debut PB Bedtime Daddy was released in May 2020 and her follow up PB Get Ready, Mama! is a Speech Pathology Australia shortlisted Book of the Year. Her third and fourth PBs, Let’s Go shopping, Grandma! and Let’s Go to the Beach, Grandpa! are due to be released in 2023 and 2024.

Awarded The Paper Bird Fellowship for Writers in 2019, Sharon used this time to write Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt, book one of her early middle grade series, released this year through Clear Fork Publishing, with books two and three to follow.

Author insight

What’s the story behind your new children’s book Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt? SAMARA RUBIN AND THE UTILITY BELT my debut early middle grade book started as a picture book. I was inspired to write the story while taking part in a ‘writer’s happiness challenge’ where one of the exercises was to design my own utility belt that contained all the tools, I needed to overcome challenges I face as a writer. This led me to ask…what if a child had a utility belt? What tools would they need to overcome challenges in their life?

What is it about writing for children that draws you to work in that genre?   Children are the very first readers. Reading is one of the most amazing and important skills that children learn. Books and reading open magical worlds to children. I wanted to be a part of that magic.

Where do you find the inspiration for your stories? In the everyday. All my books (so far) are set in a child’s real world. The ideas for which I got from my children going to bed, getting ready for the day, going shopping, and going to school. I then added some magic and humour to these stories.

Walk us through your creative process. Once you have a story idea, what’s your next step? Once I have my story idea I brainstorm. I brainstorm every day for twenty minutes for a week. Starting with my main character. What do they want? What do they fear? What do they look like? Are they human or animal? What do they like to eat? What are their pet peeves. Who is in their family? What is their favourite place in the whole world? Do they have a nemesis? Do they have any unusual talents or peculiar habits? What is one word I would use to describe them? What is the antonym (opposite) of that word? By getting to know my character inside and out I also find out the setting for the story and in most cases the problem or what the character really wants. This helps me with the plot. I then write a pitch for my story or a synopsis. From there I outline my story and then I start writing it scene by scene or chapter by chapter.

How has your childhood influenced the writer you’ve become? As a child I loved to read. Books were all I wanted for my birthday and Christmas. I even made my own library in my bedroom; each book had its own library card and I had to borrow them out. I also liked copying out the words of books and changing them to write my own stories. At the time I didn’t know that this love of books and reading would provide the foundation to become a published author.

What role has your career in education played in your development as a children’s author? As an early years teacher, I read children’s books every day to my students. I started to not only want to read children’s books but to also write them and to share this love of writing with my students.

How closely were you involved in the creation of the illustrations for Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt? (I love the cover, by the way!) Very. After I negotiated one illustration per chapter with the publisher, I re-examined my manuscript to work out which scene in each chapter would make the best illustration. Then I provided illustration notes to Thu Vu the amazing illustrator. Throughout the whole process Callie, the publisher, Thu, and I collaborated on the illustrations.

Are they what you envisioned for this story? They are even better and more magical than I could ever have imagined. I love Thu’s style and the way she depicted the scene. Thu brought my characters to life. When I first saw the storyboard, I wanted the story to become a graphic novel, that is how good the illustrations were.

What do you hope readers will take away from this book? That we all have a metaphorical utility belt, where we have magical tools that we can use when we are faced with challenges. I wanted the reader to see they have ‘super powers’ they can use every day. 

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? For me it is more ‘writer’s procrastination.’ I come up with lots of excuses for not sitting down and writing. I try and be mindful of this procrastination trait, observe it, thank it, and then move on. It also helps if I have a clear summary of each chapter or scene in my head so I can pick up the story. I try and stop writing in a spot where I can easily pick up the story the next time I write.

What are you working on at the moment? I am working on another early MG series called WARATAH AND IVY BEAN – TRAVEL THROUGH TIME. It is about a girl and her chicken who travel back in time.

What’s the best aspect of your creative life? Creating worlds, characters and stories with my words and sharing this with readers.

—the worst? Self-doubt and imposter syndrome. Questioning myself and my writing.

How important is social media to you as an author? Quite important for promoting and marketing myself as an author. It is also helps me to support other creatives. However, it is one of my biggest procrastinations too.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? Write. It doesn’t have to be every day but write when you can even if it is only for a few minutes.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Funny, multi-levelled, timeless

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? Enid Blyton. What kept her going for all her years as a writer?

Now for a little light relief – If you were going to be stuck in a stalled lift for several hours who would you choose to share the experience with you and why? My critique group. We would have so much to talk about and stories to share that I wouldn’t even notice or want the lift to start up again.

Book Byte

Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt

Samara knows wishes don’t come true. But if they did, her wish would be to have the courage to stand up to Toby King, the meanest boy at school. On her eleventh birthday Samara is given a mysterious utility belt. A belt with magical tools. But the belt comes with a catch, there are rules and a deadline. All tools must be used within seven days. Otherwise… What will Samara do with her utility belt? Will she face her biggest fear? Or will she run out of time?

Buy the book here.

​

Meet the Author: Rachel Matthews

Let the first rough draft be really loose and wild, Kerouac style. That is where the juicy bits appear. Wait till you have a good section of your project down before you begin to closely edit.

Rachel Matthews

PixCake

Dr Rachel Matthews is a Melbourne author, lecturer and teacher. Her debut novel Vinyl Inside received strong press reviews and was highly commended by the Australian Vogel Award judges. Siren, her 2017 novel was part of a PhD at Victoria University exploring sexual violence in Australian football. Never Look Desperate, a tragi-comedy set in Melbourne, is her third novel. Her short fiction has been published in EQ magazine, educational and writing journals. She has over 15 years’ experience as an educator within a diverse range of learning environments, including lecturing in RMIT’s Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing, ACU’s Bachelor of Creative Arts, international settings, the RVIB and in student welfare at Virtual School Victoria (the largest gov school in the state). Rachel is also a contributor to news media.

Author Insight

Why do you write? To contest and understand the world. And I love the electricity of creative practice.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? Photography, another way of capturing moments.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? With my first novel, Vinyl Inside, it was a lack of knowledge about the industry and how to manage approaching publishers.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? Transit Lounge are great to work with as they involve the author in the final editing processes and the selection of the cover.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? Being around other writers. I love my classrooms and the lessons from my clever students.

—the worst? Wishing I had more time.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? I feel like I am always starting out and learning, it is a lifelong craft. In the writing of my first novel again, I would educate myself more about the industry.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? That you might lose a relationship when you write a book.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? ‘Write the hard stuff’. The late Olga Lorenzo, an important influence on my writing as a mentor and teacher at RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing program.

What’s your top tip for aspiring authors? Let the first rough draft be really loose and wild, Kerouac style. That is where the juicy bits appear. Wait till you have a good section of your project down before you begin to closely edit.

Write about what matters to you and try to not compare yourself to anyone else. Consider the subjects that people can’t speak about. Join writing communities and organisations. Consider a writing course, to refine the craft and share feedback in workshop groups. Get over your own ego and let the characters drive the story.

How important is social media to you as an author? It is a reality that writers need to access these tools. For many writers, it is not a comfortable space. But the flipside is being able to reach a wide audience and have some control.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? Not really. I think the concept of ‘writer’s block’ is just the attempt to control the very early version of a story and kill the fun. If you don’t apply any rules for a first draft you never know what you might discover.

How do you deal with rejection? It’s human nature to feel that sting if someone doesn’t like your writing. I try to keep focused on what I’m going to next.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Honest, playful and character driven.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? Helen Garner. She is quoted as saying that she lost a husband with every book she has published. I’d like to ask, on reflection, would she choose the books or the husbands?

Book Byte

Never Look Desperate is Sedaris meets Fleabag, a tragi-comedy romance set in Melbourne 2023. It features cremation bling, pineapple underwear, grief and vaccinated cruise ships. The central characters Bernard, Goldie and Minh are everything TED Talks tell you not to be. The story tackles the absurdity of despair in a recovering world, the liberation from isolation and the wild frontier of middle-aged Tinder. 

‘Matthews’s voice is funny and wry and heartbreakingly honest. She has empathy for everyone – even those of us who, like Bernard, are a little bit hopeless but not entirely without hope … ‘Toni Jordan, author of Pretty if She Smiled More and Addition.  

Buy the book here.

Meet the Author Gretchen Shirm

Gretchen Shirm is the author of a collection of short stories Having Cried Wolf, for which she was named a 2011 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her novel Where the Light Falls, was shortlisted for the 2017 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her short stories have been widely anthologised, including in Best Australian Stories, Kill Your Darlings, the Griffith Review, Meanjin, Overland, and Southerly. Her criticism is regularly published in The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age.

Find out more about Gretchen here.

Author Insight

Why do you write? I write because it’s the only natural ability I’ve ever had. I write because I want to be in conversation with other books. I write because I have things I would like to say, and my head has a way of putting these things into the form of a narrative.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? When I was still practising, I wanted to be a human rights lawyer. But now I think my alternative career would be a literary studies academic, because I think narrative is somehow inside me!

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? Overall I would say finding the time to write, despite the financial obstacles. I think being published gave me ‘permission’ to find more time to writing in my life.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? The Crying Room was quite well developed when I sent it to the publisher, though it did go through a round of editing that undoubtedly benefitted it. I was given a few options with the cover and the one I chose — which I adore — was happily the cover the publisher preferred too.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? The best aspects are the time to think my own thoughts, to let my mind and imagination roam freely. I think I naturally have a mind that is constantly thinking about places to ‘put’ new information that I acquire, and so I think that writing really suits my personality. Also, I am an emotional sponge, so I do feel that writing is an outlet for that aspect of myself.

—the worst? The worst is definitely the financial aspects of writing, the uncertainty of writing as a profession, the difficult market for literary fiction which I somehow seem to gravitate towards!

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? I would tell my younger self, particularly the short story writer, that rejection is a normal part of writing, and it’s important to treat it as a part and parcel of the occupation and not to take it personally, or to get too despondent. There will be people with whom your work resonates strongly, and to appreciate those moments when they occur.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? I tell my students in the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course that it’s good to think about the context for your novel. My first book was a collection of short stories, and in retrospect I was extremely lucky to find a publisher for that book, given the market for short fiction! So, it is useful I think to be pragmatic about who is likely to want to publish your book, and how that publisher will go about selling it. At the end of the day, publishers are not a charity and the support they have from arts organisations is limited.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? There is a passage in Elizabeth Strout’s book My Name is Lucy Barton, in which Lucy is given the advice that if when she writes she feels like she is protecting someone, she’s not doing it correctly. I think that in order to write well, you do need to be prepared to reveal yourself, and ultimately your writing always reflects on you. It’s wrong to assume your writing will hurt other people, because good writing always accounts for the fact that multiplicities of perspective are possible and necessary. I think often when we hold ourselves back as writers, the instinct we are bowing to is not to protect others, but to protect ourselves. And if we are able to release ourselves from that instinct, that’s when we start to write well.

What’s your top tip for aspiring authors? There’s a line from Charlotte Wood’s excellent book on creativity The Luminous Solution, which I recommend to all my students, that I think is the best and most encouraging and inspiring advice I’ve ever read about writing, which is: “I think all artists must at some stage face this forlorn discovery: I am not like others, and all I have to offer are my own perceptions. You can try to hide, to impress, but I believe good art only comes from the imperfect true self, first accepted, and then revealed.”

How important is social media to you as an author? I think it’s necessary first to keep one connected to a community of other writers, but also to keep track of opportunities and also to hunt down the best and most inspiring books. That sense of community can be really important when one is writing — on the other hand, it can present an unnecessary distraction and preoccupation, so it’s important to find the right balance.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? I’ve never experienced writer’s block in the sense that I couldn’t write at all, but I’ve definitely experienced a long period when I wasn’t writing well. There was a manuscript I was working on, the first novel I tried to write actually, that just wouldn’t take the right shape, but felt really necessary to me in some ways. I think on reflection, even though the novel wasn’t right, the writing itself was trying to tell me something really vital, and once I started to pay attention to that, I started to write well again.

How do you deal with rejection? I write a lot of really angry emails and social media posts that never see the light of day, that capture what I am really feeling! And then I turn around and get back to my writing, and remind myself that it’s all a part of the day’s work, and ask myself what I can learn from the rejection.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Spare, intense, different.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? Just one is impossible! It would be Maggie Nelson, Rachel Cusk, Anne Enright, and Elizabeth Strout, at a tea party with petit fours and good coffee. And I’d probably just listen.

Book Byte

When Bernie Rodgers and her husband move to the coastal town of Ballina, she finds that there is more than a physical
distance separating her from her adult daughters. Bernie loves her daughters, but the problem she realises is with the
way she loved them. Bernie’s daughter Susie is professionally successful, but her feelings remain distant, even to herself. When she takes on the responsibility for caring for her niece, the pieces of her life finally snap into place. The inexplicable disappearance of an aeroplane though, plunges her life into mystery once again. Morally acute and dazzlingly accomplished, this is an affecting novel about loneliness, love, family and the need to feel.

Buy the book here.

Meet the Author: David Cohen

David’s top tip for aspiring authors: As far as prose is concerned, I would say strive to master the mechanics. Writing clear and concise sentences is a somewhat underrated skill. Beyond that, I can only repeat what most other writers advise: read a lot and read widely.

David Cohen is the author of the novels Fear of Tennis and Disappearing off the Face of the Earth and the short-story collection The Hunter and Other Stories of Men, which won the 2019 Russell Prize for Humour Writing. His stories have appeared in Australian Book Review, The Big Issue, Griffith Review, Meanjin, Overland, and elsewhere. He lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Author Insight

Why do you write? I’ve always felt a strong impulse to write. The only time I feel truly at home is when I’m sitting alone, rearranging words on a page.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? I guess I’m already doing other things while being a writer; for many years I’ve worked in an academic library and prior to that I had a series of different jobs—some writing related, some not. But if I weren’t a writer I’d probably be a musician. I played in several bands when I was much younger. I was never that comfortable being on stage, but I love music.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? Initially, my biggest obstacle was writing something good enough to be published—by reputable publishers, at least. As far as short story collections go, the main obstacles (apart from the above) were (1) a dearth of publishers—in Australia, anyway—interested in short story collections, and (2) a dearth of publishers interested in my particular kind of fiction, which, while fairly traditional in form, doesn’t seem to fit neatly into any particular genre/category.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? Barry Scott (Publisher at Transit Lounge) always invites your feedback on proposed cover designs, but I really didn’t have much because Josh Durham’s design was right on the money. He always does brilliant covers.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? The opportunity to sit alone at a desk and play around with words. It’s always a wonderful feeling when a story or novel or whatever finally starts to take a definite shape.

—the worst? The frustration of never having enough time and/or energy to devote to writing.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? It’s hard to say. Maybe I would try to organise my life in such a way that I have more writing time.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? I’m not sure if I ever set out to become an author; writing, in one form or another, is just something I’ve always done, regardless of whatever else may be going on.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? This lament by the English poet Philip Larkin, while not advice as such, always makes me feel a bit better: ‘I am beginning to think of the human imagination as a fruit machine on which victories are rare and separated by much vain expense, and represent a rare alignment of mental and spiritual qualities that normally are quite at odds.’

How important is social media to you as an author? Not very.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? For me, writer’s block means being prevented from writing due to various other things taking up valuable time and energy. But writing is a job like any other; you’ve just got to keep working at it.

How do you deal with rejection? It’s only natural to take rejection personally, but I always tell myself that (my answer to question 3 notwithstanding) there are many reasons why a piece of writing might be rejected—most of which have little to do with me or the intrinsic quality of my work. That helps, but not a lot.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? Inventive. Strange. Hilarious. (Not actually my three words: I borrowed them from Bram Presser).

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? Maybe Franz Kafka. I feel a certain affinity with him because like me he was always complaining about something—mainly his inability to make any headway with his writing. It would be gratifying to spend an hour in the company of such a great writer and complainer.

Book Byte

A public memorial’s name is changed to avoid any mention of the tragedy it has been set up to commemorate. Two attention-seeking activists campaign against exclusionary policies adopted by the gift shop at a suburban shopping mall. A customer service representative becomes obsessed with a colleague who has worked from home for so long,
nobody in the company remembers her. A middle-aged father loses his marriage and falls in love again with a cherished but damaged childhood toy. An academic’s research into roadside memorials takes a peculiar turn.
David Cohen’s sometimes bizarre yet pitch-perfect stories capture everyday horrors but are always shot through with a profound empathy and generosity. The Terrible Event delivers not just one terrible event, but many events of varying degrees of terrible-ness. Death, destruction, disappearance, decline, defeat – it has something for everyone.

Catherine de Saint Phalle

Catherine de Saint Phalle was born in London, spent her first years in Sussex, England, and lived in Paris and the South of France. She moved to Melbourne in 2003 and now lives between Brunswick and a garden in Daylesford. She has had six books published in France and Call me Marlowe is her fourth book with Transit Lounge. English was her mother tongue and when she became an Australian citizen it all came together – she found that the language of her childhood made her heart beat in Australian-English.

Author insight

Why do you write? I write because I have a jungle in my head. My thoughts are like birds flying between the branches and the foliage of the trees. It’s a mess in there – but writing clears all that. Suddenly, everything quietens, and I hear what I’m going to put down on the paper as if someone were dictating to me.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? I don’t know. I have no idea. I’d still pursue the odd jobs I do to survive. I’m a Jill of all trades. Translating, editing, gardening, cleaning etc… And I read madly. Always have. I’d have reading, looking at art, repairing things. That would be a consolation. If some inner god were to forbid me to write novels, I could always write in my notebook, couldn’t I?

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? My own doubts. My own fears. What some people said to dampen my spirit. I think an inner decision, an inner strength must ripen for things to occur. It’s a bit like falling in love. It happens you know not how, you know not when. Grapes need to be ready to be made into wine.

How involved have you been in the development of your book? Did you have input into the cover? No, my publisher Barry Scott, who is a writer himself, proposes several covers but I get to say which is my favourite. It’s a joy that up to now our tastes have converged and the final decision is a moment of confirmation and relief.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? Writing. The pure joy of feeling words leave your soul, not letting anything get in the way – even myself.

— the worst? When you get stuck in a rut. When you don’t hear any voice, any whisper, or see the slightest thing. When I was in my teens an image would hang in my mind, like a forgotten painting in a bombed-out building. Now, I mostly hear a voice, an insistent voice. There is also a certain loneliness involved. But I don’t feel that anymore. Perhaps I’ve walked through my jungle of loneliness and I’m on the other side.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? Nothing. I’ve always followed my intuition and I would do the same. It’s the only thing that works for me.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? I didn’t set out to become an author. I started scribbling stories at the age of seven. Writing has always been with me like an itch.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? Don’t listen to anyone. Listen to what’s inside you.

What’s your top tip for aspiring authors? There are two types of writers: the architectural ones, who build their book then fill in the fleshy parts and the intuitive writers who don’t know where they’re going and crawl through the bushes. I couldn’t advise the first kind, but if I were forced to give advice under duress, I would say to the second kind to listen and listen, take notes, and trust what they hear from within. The silence of the heart is the only guide.

How important is social media to you as an author? Social media is not vastly present in my existence. On occasion I enjoy discovering friend’s moods and epiphanies on Facebook and putting up little pieces about what touches me, makes me change my mind, or shifts my perception. And I like posting photos. I will also tell my friends I have a launch.

But I hate twitter, twit, twit… so short, so frantic, so superficial. Perfect medium for Trump.

Do you experience ‘writer’s block’ and if so, how do you overcome it? I used to experience it a lot. And it was like a dark night in the middle of the day or a bright, hard day in the middle of the night. Now, it doesn’t happen so much. I suppose you just have to walk through the desert to reach an oasis.

How do you deal with rejection? It can be frightening. As for everyone, it can be painful, of course. But without the rocks alongside it, the river would have no direction. Rejection guides you in a way, it has you take sudden turns and makes your realise things. It plucks stupidity out of you.

In three words, how would you describe your writing? I can’t describe it. Can you describe your liver, your gut, what’s inside, under the skin? It’s not for me to say. For my last novel, Call me Marlowe, the three words could only be: Harold, Marylou, Petr.

If you had the chance to spend an hour with any writer of your choice, living or dead, who would it be and what would you most like them to tell you about living a writing life? Joseph Roth. I would love him to tell me what he feels when he gets up in the morning – the small details of his life, the ordinary things. Because writing is in everything, even in the dog curled up at your side.

What was the inspiration behind your new release, Call me Marlowe? After finishing my last novel, The Sea and Us, Harold, its main character, would not go away, would not leave me. He was just there all the time. I could hear him think in my head and I knew he was worried. I saw where he was, what he was doing and who was around him. I started realising what was bothering him, and soon it was bothering me too and I was off writing his story again. I found the title straightaway, which is always a good sign – Call me Marlowe.

Then when my own life took a sudden turn, Harold’s also swerved unexpectedly. This made me wonder if everything that happens to us, an accident, a breakup, a move, the loss of a friend, reverberates on two levels: the level we’re living in and the level we’ve got our heart in – whether we write, cut hair, paint, garden, make furniture or shoes, clean houses, look after older people, or children.

I knew the story was circling around narcissism. The subject was all I read about for months on end. And because Harold was of Czech origin, I read up on Czechoslovakia too – book after book. I’ve always been concerned about Czechoslovakia, since childhood and not only because of what happened to me at school – but it must have had an effect too.

I was in an American school in Paris because the French nuns wouldn’t have a child born out of wedlock. One day, in the middle of those mass assemblies they liked to fill the whole school with, a girl was ushered in and everyone was told that here was a refugee from Czechoslovakia. The Russians had just invaded their country.

She was dark haired and composed. She was older than I was. I remember the withdrawn, guarded look on her face, as if all this were not happening to her, as if she had nothing to do with all these voices and all these people. She was not in my class, and I never got to see her again. But I never forgot her.

In September 1938, the Great Powers, America, France, and England kow-towed to Hitler. Roosevelt, Daladier and Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement and sold their ally, Czechoslovakia, to the Nazis in the name of safety, in fear of another Great War. Czechoslovakia, bang in the middle of Europe, was its democratic heart, and the only real democracy in Europe at that day.

I began to feel that intimate terrorism was linked to national tyrannies.

Harold and Prague began to converge. Call me Marlowe was fed by a call from elsewhere, a call I could hear distinctly. The other characters just confirmed a cloud of intuition that hovered for four, nearly five years over me. Trauma, often the result of narcissistic behaviour, starts small and ends big. The only thing to say to narcissists is no and goodbye. It’s a strange state of being that forces people to defend their hearts and their lands. It forces you out of yourself to exist in the real world where stories happen and find resolution.

Book byte

Set in both Prague and Melbourne, Call Me Marlowe captures a man’s search for his motherland in the hope of making sense of his life. With a delicate touch, the novel embodies the nature of trauma – both personal and political – in people’s lives.
Harold Vaněk loves Marylou, a woman he met in South Korea, where she was working as a sex worker, but whom he has managed to bring to Melbourne. She is the one who calls Harold ‘Marlowe’. Theirs is an uncommonly beautiful but
tenuous intimacy.
Harold feels his mistakes are urging him to leave Melbourne. In a wild gamble to retrieve all he has lost, he disappears to
Prague. What happens in ‘the City of a Hundred Spires’ is both remarkable and affecting. The people he meets there –
Vacláv, Marie, Pete, and Petr – and the soul of the city itself provide answers and a ‘world’ that he desperately wants Marylou to be part of.
But is it all too late?

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