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My writingQuestions I get askedDo I research Arthurian things, or did I mug up for Illuminations? I am afraid I was an Arthurian and Old French epic legend and all sorts of other Medievalist way before I wrote a novel using those stories. My poor editor had to put her foot down to make some bits of Illuminations more accessible to readers. Now I can split the Medievalist from the novelist much more effectively (look Mum, no footnotes!!)- but I was a novice at dividing my brain down the middle at first.
People always ask me how much of my fiction is based on real life.I am very impressed that people believe enough to ask me about specific characters, but my characters are entirely my invention. Some incidents are loosely based on things that I have experienced or heard about, but it is more in the nature of being inspired by than recounting things as they happened. And to the kind person who walked right up to me to count my grey hairs to see if I had twenty-one (the number of the male narrator in "Happy Faces for Happy Families") - there are quite a few more since you counted, but I am not there yet. With my novels, even my footnotes are fictitious and should be treated as such (and if I sound pompous, it is because a lot of people have believed that, because something is in a footnote, it is true - one person even told me a footnote which I know is fictional because I wrote it, refers to some sort of external reality). Which brings me to - Illuminations
Did I base Rose/Fay/Ailinn on myself?Well, sort of. I base all my characters on what I see of the world through my own perverse vision. So even the most horrible ones express bits of me. But they are not me. Thank goodness. I get asked about Rose more than any other, because she is a Medievalist who is travelling in France and lo, I am a Medievalist who has travelled in France. In fact, Rose shares some intellectual interests with me, and even went into some of the same shops - I have the figurines she bought her niece! - but we have fundamental differences. Luckily for me, I have never, ever, ever had Bill in my life, for instance. Think of it this way: all my characters are recalcitrant and follow their own paths. They will all do things in the novels that I would not and could not. So it is not a good idea to say "Gillian is Rose" or "Gillian is Fay". TwistsI don't intend to put twists at the end of my books. They happen all by themselves. I must just have a twisted brain. US TourIt was great, it was wonderful - and here is the stuff we put online during it. Travels in a red mustang convertible My name has been in lights and I can die happy? Well, not yet. The accentI am very happily Australian. I do not sound like Steve Irwin because I sound like someone from Melbourne. I guess this has something to do with growing up there. (Why do I always feel like apologising for my sense of humour?)
More on IlluminationsRose, the modern academic who finds such a strange manuscript, has her own webpage. Rose's homepage
People and placesRose is a Melbourne girl. Here are some photos of those aspects of Melbourne. Don't blame me if they are not scenic - blame her. Rose's Melbourne
Several people have asked me about the addresses in the book.I invented them. In fact, where Louise lives is actually a bedding shop. Please don't write to these people I did not invent the coffee and chocolate places on Rose's website. Alan Frew is not fictitious. I asked him about Rose's preferred blend and he says it would be his Espresso Meridionale. My favourite coffees are his Nicaraguan Maragogype and his Yemen Mokha Ismaili.
When I was in France in 1995, I took a bunch of photos related to things in the book. I also have a few from my earlier trip (the exotic part of my doctoral studies) - here are the most interesting of them.
Life through Cellophane
What on earth can I tell you about Life through Cellophane that won't send you madly running as far from it as you can get? No ants were hurt in the research for it? No public servants were hurt in the making of the novel, either, and the boss-from-hell is not anyone I know. Some of Bronny's stories are real, but Bronny herself is invented. I am not Liz, though I wouldn't mind her dressmaking skills. The mirror was inspired by one I own, a family one. The first time I experienced full-on Jewish mourning as a child was for my grandfather and this mirror was on the wall. covered by a piece of cloth. The white cloth was light and fluttered whenever a door was opened. I scared myself silly thinking it was my grandfather's soul trying to escape back into our world. Nicole Murphy told me Liz needed a younger man in her life. And that's the full sum of frequently-asked-questions about Life through Cellophane. I get lots of reader comments, but not very many questions. It is available from Eneit Pressnow and the Eneit Press website will be updated from time to time showing other places it can be bought. The Art of Effective DreamingThe Art of Effective Dreaming is still coming - it was held up by all sorts of factors and will be out soon. Watch this space and watch my publisher's website. As far as I know I am the only Australian writer to have a book delayed by Katrina, Rita and Ike. A group of Melbourne morris dancers are waiting patiently to see what I have done to morris dancers and have warned me that cold revenge is just as sweet. They promised me a cup tea afterwards, which is nice. Some readers in Sydney ask when the curse on the book will be lifted. My answer to all questions is "Soon."
CanberraCanberra gets a bad rap everywhere. Because it is the city of Australian government, it tends to be seen as a bunch of things it is not, the main one being boring. I am afraid The Art of Effective Dreaming is not a good promotion for it as a city, Life through Cellophane is only marginally better. But I have to say that Fay would not have enjoyed anywhere she lived - the fault lay not with Canberra but with her soul. I came here years ago. I planned to stay one year, to be close enough to my father so I could visit him heaps when he was dying (which I did). That was in 1988. I never quite got around to leaving, despite vast pressures from family and friends all over the place. They could not see why I stayed. This says a lot about the difference between how Canberra is seen from the outside and what it really is. Canberra is unpretentious (well, mostly). A giant village, full of informed and thoughtful people. A good sense of humour (we need it to deal with Canberra jokes) and amazing libraries. It is also very pretty. Here is your standard tourist site: Canberra Some pictures of standard tourist stuff: More Canberra And more: And yet more! Maybe one day I will take some alternate Canberra photos.
I adore the layering effect of the mountain ranges, and the snow on the high peaks. The view that you get driving down Hindmarsh Drive past Red Hill is just spectacular. And then there are the ancient rock paintings, and... Morris dancingFirstly, I have a giant apology to make to my many folkdance and morris dancing friends. Many of them already know about this apology. In fact, a few of them helped me find creative ways to torture poor, innocent dancers for The Art of Effective Dreaming. I am nevertheless sorry if anything in the book hurts anyone. It was not intended to. I was feeling quite fine about being tongue in cheek and saying rude things about dancers who died in the course of duty. However (and this is a serious however) a couple of my close friends are with Britannia Morris, in Melbourne (great side - terrific folks) and when one of their number died during a dance and the side more or less followed (unwittingly) what I had already written about morris dancers and mourning, I wanted to go back and change the whole novel. I didn't. I wrote that section entirely before what happened in Melbourne and it was not related to it at all (except for me knowing some of the people). I was distressed by it, and still am, however. It was a bizarre coincidence. Besides, morris dancers should never die. In case you need to know, I like morris dancing (especially Cotswold), even though I have been officially certified incompetent at it. And the vast majority of morris dancers are truly the most generous and warm people I know. Fortunately for me, most of them also have senses of humour.
Masques
The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild puts out anthologies every now and again. This is a wonderful learning experience for writers, because we learn about the trade and how stuff operates. I got to learn a lot more than I expected with Masques. I now know I can edit (woohoo!) and that I can be impressively bossy. I learned just how many hiccups there can be between the beginning of a process and an anthology (now I know a bit about what Trivium Publishing has been through!). It was the most amazing roller-coaster ride. I was able to work with some fascinating authors. I planned to get back on the ride the moment I found a publisher that wants me and a dream I want to see shaped by others' writing. The publisher (Eneit Press - the same small press that fell in love with Life through Cellophane) found me and early next year Baggage will appear.
Baggage What does Australian cultural baggage look like? How much do we carry with us from our colonial origins? How does it differ between cultural groups and nations-of-origin? So many questions. I've been haunted by those questions for a very long time. Most of my research ahs been concerned with cultural baggage, in one form or another. Now I have thirteen wonderful writers demonstrating different views of baggage. This anthology is very special. I adore it that Sharyn of Eneit Press asked me about my dream and the result has made the dream grow more interesting and more profound. I can't wait for this anthology to be released so that other people can share the craft and thought and wonder of these stories (and the single poem). The writers are: Deborah Biancotti
Other writing I have written other things. Only a few short stories. I write maybe one or two of them every year. I lost over 30 stories in a computer accident, which is my excuse for not having more published. In fact, of all those lost, there were only two that were at all good. The truth is that I really prefer writing short non-fiction and long fiction.
Non-fictionI have produced a few articles on this, that or the other over the years. By 'a few,' I suspect I mean over two hundred. Here are a couple of the articles, in case you are bored. I am a great believer in battling boredom. Note: These are the unedited versions. So blame me and not the editors for the writing quality. |
A favourite bit of France.
Snowy Mountain flowers
Loch Ard Gorge