Glenda Larke is the author of many published novels, including the Isles of Glory trilogy. She can be found online here.

Q1: You are heavily involved in rainforest conservation issues in Malaysia, where you live at the moment: is this something that you have tried, or would like to, include in your novels? Do you think issues such as this can, or should, be brought into fantasy?

Certainly I have dealt with issues of the interconnectivity of the natural environment and humankind in my books – particularly in the Isles of Glory trilogy, and yes, I believe that fantasy is uniquely situated to bring home such important issues to readers. A fantasy/sf writer can say things without sounding too dogmatic or personal because it is all set in a fantasy or future world. I love a many-layered story, and this is one of the ways I try to achieve this. I haven’t – yet – dealt with a tropical rainforest, though. I believe it is possible to write stories which both entertain and have a message, without sounding didactic.

Such stories can be read on any level – I’ve had readers comment on the entertainment value and remark that’s all there is, and I’ve had readers say they love the many layers…and they are talking about the same book.

Q2: You’ve moved around a great deal: WA, Malaysia, Austria and Tunisia…. Has this moving around made writing easier or harder? And has it influenced what and how you write? As well – if it’s not a rude thing to say – you’ve started to be published “later in life,” as they say. Has this influenced your writing?

Writing is never easy, at least not for me. It is always hard work, but where I am matters not one whit. Having lived in so many places has given me an enormous amount of material and insight into other cultures, though. I tend to think in terms of the complex as a result, and rarely see things or people in terms of black and white. Or is that all part of growing older, or being an older (and one would like to think – wiser) writer? And if I know one thing, it is what it is like to be an outsider.

Q3: What do you see yourself doing in five years’ time? You’ve written non-fiction, as well as fiction: is this an area you would like to work in more?

I enjoy writing non-fiction, certainly, but not as much as fiction. So given the choice…

In five years time, I would like to see myself receiving accolades for writing the great fantasy of the 21st century…ok, one can dream, right?

Q4: Do you get much time to read, amidst all the other stuff that you do? What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

I used to read more before I had deadlines, that’s for sure. But I can’t imagine not reading at all. Right now most of what I read is by my fellow Voyager authors, often in MS form. (They do the same for me). And there’s is some fantastic writing there – Russell Kirkpatrick’s new Husk trilogy is a stupendous epic that deserves international accolades and far more recognition than it is getting. Karen Miller is the most versatile of us all, writing equally well in different sub-sets of the genre and making it all look so very easy, when of course it is not. I love Jenny Fallon for sheer exuberant entertainment and its “can’t-put-it-down” nature. Her latest trilogy is her best yet. On the international scene, I’d have to say Naomi Novak’s Temeraire books were one of the highlights of the year for me.

Q5: And, since surely you’ve thought about it… which fictional character would you most like to get it on with, and why?

If you mean one of my own characters, it would have to be Kelwyn Gilfeather…such a lovely, compassionate and totally confused man. Of someone else’s characters? Hmm…Tyrion Lannister. Because I’m curious, and I like to live dangerously.

This interview has been undertaken as part of Snapshot 2007. The other interviews can be read at:

http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://benpayne.livejournal.com/
http://kaaronwarren.livejournal.com/
http://cassiphone.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://rosies-travels.blogspot.com/

Grace Dugan is the author of the novel The Silver Road and numerous short stories. She can be found online here.

Q1: You’ve been working on an MA in Creative Writing. What’s your focus there, and do you think it will be of benefit in your novel-writing career? And if not, why are you doing it?

I started the MA because I was interested in teaching creative writing as a sideline to writing, ie. a day job. There’s been a lot of side benefits along the way. The week I enrolled, someone offered me some tutoring work in a short story subject. That’s been my main income over the last 18 months, as well as a quite enjoyable and interesting part-time job, basically critting stories for a living. I’ve also had a wonderful time working with my supervisor, Nike Bourke, who’s been a great mentor to me.

My project was what they call practice-led research, where you write a novel (or some other such creative thing) and then write a relatively short academic exegesis which relates in some tenuous or not-so-tenuous way to the creative work. My exegesis was about novel writing processes and strategies. You know some people say they plan everything out and how could you do it any other way, and others say they “work organically,” &c. It’s something I’ve experimented with over time and I wanted to shed some light on it, because it seems to be a slightly loaded topic and people talk a lot of rubbish about it. So I surveyed about twenty novelists over email, and then I got kind of ill and I haven’t done anything about it since. I took as much sick leave as I could, which was a year, but really my heart has gone out of the whole thing and I’ve just withdrawn from the program. In fact, I’ve decided to go off on a bit of a different course and I’ve spent the last little while trying to get into a medical degree. I’ve jumped through most of the hoops and with any luck I’ll start next year.
I’ll still finish the novel I was working on, of course, but I won’t finish the exegesis or the pesky coursework that I had left.

Q2: You wrote The Silver Road while you were still at high school, but it took a while for it to be published. How much changed in that time? and was it all for the good?

I started it in the last few months of high school. It’s gone through a lot of changing and mooshing around. At first it was two books, a pair running concurrently, that would be published as part of a series. That presented a lot of problems, to reconcile the dramatic aspects with continuity between both books. When I was at the Varuna Manuscript Development workshop, Linda Funnell from HarperCollins suggested slicing the two books up and combining them. I think that worked pretty well, but it took about a year and was a real slog. In case you were wondering, the original two books followed Yelela and Zuven respectively, and I wrote Haga, the third character, at the same time that I was combining them. That was the version Penguin bought, and then it went through a very substantial structural edit, and a line edit which was as heavy as some people’s structural edits, and proofs which had five things marked up on every page. I’m exhausted just telling you about it.

It was definitely all for the good. I basically rewrote that novel as I learned to write better, but because it took such a long time, by the time I finished I was quite distant from the story. About once a month I get an email asking me to write a sequel, or even an epilogue, but I really can’t imagine doing it. The expressive impulse for the story was from long ago, and most of the work I did in the last few years was just making it work.

Q3: Your next novel will ‘probably’ be called The Motherland Garden. Any hints as to what it will be about?

It’s a fantasy set in a world which is industrialised but relatively low-tech. The protagonist lives in a women-only hermitage studying magic, in a country which is a subject nation of a much bigger empire. She falls in love, gets her heart broken, works in a mailroom, fails to learn magic, gets involved with guerillas, &c. Plus there’s lots of weather.

Q4: I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had some medical issues recently – I hope it’s left you more time for reading! On which note, what’s the best thing you’ve read so far in 2007?

I try to get Small Beer Press books when I can afford them, (which is often, as many of them are pretty cheap). This year I’ve absolutely loved both Howard Who?, an old Howard Waldrop collection, and Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison. Some friends of mine in the US have also started a new press, Blind Eye Books, and their first book, Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale, was really great, too. I also loved Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson, and recently picked up one of his older ones, Escape from Kathmandu, which was more fun than it had any right to be. Last one: I read “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” by James Tiptree Jr, which was really compelling and persuasive.

Q5: Finally, on a completely different tangent: if you could get it on with any fictional character, who would it be, and why?!

I had a lot of trouble with this question. I scanned my bookcase and thought about all the heroes, but they’re mostly troubled, in a way which arouses sympathy but is not really attractive; or enigmatic loners who I might like reading about but who, in real life, would be those people who take themselves too seriously; or they’re those comfy-love-interest fellows that you feel good about the protagonist ending up with, but I wouldn’t necessarily go for them myself.

This interview has been undertaken as part of Snapshot 2007. The other interviews can be read at:

http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://benpayne.livejournal.com/
http://kaaronwarren.livejournal.com/
http://cassiphone.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://rosies-travels.blogspot.com/

Jackie French is the author of numerous novels, including Macbeth and Son and Pharoah most recently. She can be found online here

Q1: A lot of your stories revolve around historical people or places: Macbeth and Son, Pharoah, Dinkum Histories, A Rose for the ANZAC Boys… and those are just the recent ones! What is it about historical stories that appeals to you? Is there any person or time that you would *never* write about?

Nothing that I’ve deliberately censored from my mind and thought “that’s out.”

History? Partly because i’ve never quite believed in the concept of linear time, even though we may experience it that way. have always felt that the past and present is only a membrane away.

Partly early conditioning- as a child growing up in Brisbane in the 50’s I was subjected to long stretches in Church and religious instruction and the only acceptable thing to read instead of listening to the sermon was the Bible..which is a stunning source document for ancient history. Moved onto the great dialogues of Plato and had a crush on Socrates- all in all, lived in the past for large chunks of the week.

And partly too because of history’s sheer diversity and complexity. When you start thinking about the past you see it in terms of your own age. the more deeply you understand it the more different you realise it is.

But mostly…well, I don’t like being fenced in. Couldn’t live in a city, or work in an office- and would hate to be boxed up in a small world called ‘the present’ too.

Q2: You’ve received a huge number of accolades for your stories: shortlists and Notable Titles from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, YABBA and Bilby and WAYBRA shortlists… and that’s just this year! Two questions, then, really: is there one story or project that you are most proud of? And how do you react when you find out you’ve shortlisted or nominated for an award yet again?!

For every award I get there’s the rejection when a book I love DOESN’T get an award… especially the ones that i know are better than some of the ones that have.

Writing is a pretty solitary occupation. Sometimes it seems as though the publishers just kindly send you a cheque twice a year. Awards are when you suddenly realise that it was a book that you wrote, not just a pile of words.

Q3: Where to from here for Jackie French? You’ve been prolific in the last few years – will you keep up the pace for the next few?

When you suddenly have to face that you may not make it through the next few years, I suppose everyone starts wondering what they’ve missed doing. But for me it’s simple- I just want more. More books to write, more lunches with friends and family, more wombats to watch and trees to plant and see grow.

Q4: In between your writing, and public appearances, and other demands on your time – do you get to read much? What’s the best thing you’ve read in 2007?

I read at least a book every day (I read fairly quickly). But the best? Bloody hell… Audrey Niffenegers’s The Time Traveller’s Wife. Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear. Graham Green’s Travels with my Aunt (re read that last night- simply perfect). But there must eb at least another twenty somewhere there- proably in one of the boxes in my bedroom of books I’ve yet to put back on the shelves!

Q5: Should you ever have the chance to visit a fictional world, which would it be – and are there any characters you would like to meet and, shall we say, be intimate with?!

I think I could settle down quite happily in Lancre. But I’d prefer the Island of Aldous Huxley…minus the invasion at the end.

This interview has been undertaken as part of Snapshot 2007. The other interviews can be read at:

http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://benpayne.livejournal.com/
http://kaaronwarren.livejournal.com/
http://cassiphone.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://rosies-travels.blogspot.com/

DM Cornish is the author and illustrator of Monster Blood Tattoo, and can be found online here.

Q1: You’ve been shortlisted, with Monster Blood Tattoo, for the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards – congratulations! And for your first published work, too… tell us about it: how did you find out, how did you feel, what does it mean to you to be shortlisted?

Thank you very much, ma’am. My publisher, Dyan Blacklock, called me and told me and it felt very good; my hope and desire is to write good stories, to write them well, I have no idea if I have achieved this with MBT but a short-listing is certainly encouraging. As for what it means, in purely banal, fiduciary terms it means extra sales – the shortlist is viewed as a buying guide for most schools and libraries – but more especially it just feels like a big gold star (in the right kind of way), a “well done and keep going” – and I am very very grateful to be included.

Q2: Monster Blood Tattoo is one of the prettiest books I’ve seen in a long time – the illustrations are lovely, and the whole book is an experience of the world you’ve created, the Half-Continent, down to the name-plate at the very beginning. (Who me? A simpering fan?!) Was it your idea, to market the book that way, or some bright spark with your publisher?

It was very much my hope to make a book that was a complete experience and Dyan Blacklock was equally as keen (as long as the numbers worked – as in $$$). In 4th year uni I had a visual journal that was blue and black and cloth covered. I loved that book, loved sticking weird collages and doing odd doodles in it and when it came time to publish my very own book (woohoo!) I wanted to make something that replicated that loved tome of my younger years. Indeed, I took a reduction in my royalty to make it possible to afford the production of the MBT series in the hardback form (Australian & New Zealand) readers can buy. That blue hard bound edition is very much close to my heart.

The name plate was very much about me wanting to make the reading experience as rich and immersing as possible – this is all about suspending disbelief and escaping into another place after all. I figured that for the right reader the idea of a) feeling like you just might be holding a book made in the Half-Continent, and b) even identifying with the protagonist by naming yourself as a foundling too just might make the immersion just that much more deep. By way of a sneak preview, the book plate for Lamplighter (MBT Book 2) will be of a book given to you from the Empire itself.

As to the character illustrations, they are there because of the influence of Mervyn Peake’s books and those wonderful character studies that pepper his works. The way the illustrations appear in MBT is more formal – with frames and name plates – but the heart of the idea is Mr Peake. I might just add to this that I only wanted to show characters rather than whole scenes, to still allow the reader space to imagine these scenes for themselves – the reader of a novel has to have that freedom, surely.

In the end, I think of the Half-Continent itself like others might remember great holiday destinations they have really been too, and regard its characters like recalling close friends who happen to live in another city at the moment – and I would love to impart some of that to my readers. If I do then joy!, mission very much accomplished.

Q3: Monster Blood Tattoo is going to be at least a trilogy, I presume – there seems to be a lot of scope in the Half-Continent for Rossamund to keep getting into, and out of, trouble. Paint yourself a prophet, and look at the next 5 years: where to? Will you stay with young adult fiction? Are there short story ideas lurking in your mind, that might fill in some odd corners of the world you’ve created? Or is writing going to take second place to world domination?

In the next 5 years, Lord willing, I would love to write other stories about other characters in different situations – to explore the H-c (as I abbreviate the Half-Continent) from other points of view. I have swilling about my noggin a couple of ideas, one being an whole novel about two characters thrust together by circumstances and off to see the world, the other a collection of short stories – just as you said (ma’am, after reading your review of Book 1 and the above bit of foresight I reckon you and I might be on a sympathetic wave-length). The very first proper narrative writings of the H-c were short stories (barely a handful and poorly written at that) and it is a form I can see being very liberating as I explore all sorts of aspects of the H-c and the lands around it from many different periods in its history too. I reckon it might be a great way to show folks the breadth of my ideas – Rossamünd’s story only goes a small way into the ideas I have in my head and scribbled in my notebooks. There is even a notion for a graphic novel of short stories too, but we shall have to wait and see.

The YA section is such a rich and vibrant part of publishing currently and my working relationship with my publisher so fruitful I see no need to venture anywhere else. I just wish people would stop thinking that doing things for children is somehow less than writing for adults; you can see the , look in some folk’s eyes when they find out I’m a writer then I tell them it’s YA, it is a look that goes from keen interest to “oh, so you’re not a real writer then…” Very disheartening. Still, if I did or did not do things based on the comprehension of others there would be no H-c or MBT.

As to world domination, I had a great idea about it that I wrote down but – stupid me! – I left them in the pocket of my jeans and they went through the wash, paper utterly destroyed plans lost. So that was a bit of a setback I can tell you, ah well…

Q4: Hopefully you’ve had the chance to do some reading this year, along with the excitement of Monster Blood Tattoo coming out: what has been the best thing you’ve read this year?

I, Claudius, Robert Graves – wonderfully written (and much plundered for possible concepts that fit the H-c); “Red Spikes,” Margo Lanagan – I love the short story form and this is such a sweet sweet example of the craft; Ock von Fiend, Luke Edwards – a fellow stable-mate at Omnibus Books and one of the best picture books I have in my largish collection; Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell – a superb book on re-thinking Christian thought and expectation.

Q5: And finally, if wishes were fishes is there any fictional character you would want to get it on with?! (Don’t worry, everyone is getting this question!)

Umm… well, those who know MBT might think I might say Europe, yet I tend not to think of my characters that way. If I made my wife, Tiffany, into a fictional character then I would say her – but I get to be with her for real so that kinda covers it for me. (This is a nice, boring answer I’m sure, but there you go…)