It’s the people traditionally left out of the frame who interest me the most, as well as what happens after what would be the climax in many stories. A group of women moving in together after they’ve left their husbands in THE WOMEN AND THE GIRLS; a bunch of misfit kids exploring natural horsemanship after they’ve been kicked out of pony club in the DREAM RIDERS series for younger readers; or a woman who has changed her name and started a new life, only to find her old life catching up with her, in THE CLEANSKIN.
While my novels are set in different eras, they focus on relationships and people. My aim is always to make my characters and their stories as real and sympathetic to the reader as someone they might meet now – whether the story is set in the present or the past. I am interested in the ways we’ve changed and the ways we haven’t, and what this reveals about us and our society now, and what might constitute our fundamental natures, particularly in our intimate relationships: how we feel about ourselves, what holds us back, and how far we’ll go for what we want and believe.
In my writing I am trying to convey a sense of ‘all time happening all the time’. Not just because I think this is true in people’s personal experiences – our memories and past experiences are always informing our experience of the present, and vice versa – but I think it’s true in our collective experience as well. Our memories of the past as a society, as well as the experiences themselves, are here with us now, changing us, just as we keep changing and retelling the story of our past, in a constantly evolving exchange.
Illness or death of people mentioned in the previous answer.
My unwavering sense of dread. I can find the dark cloud to any silver lining.
Unkindness.
My cat Remy for his self possession. My dog Jenny for her sweetness and enthusiasm.
Travel.
Happy with a base note of dread.
Kindness. Strength. Tenderness.
Kindness. Wit. Charm.
I did not know that.
Most recently sitting on the beach in Angourie, Yamba, surrounded by my human and animal family, with full moon and bonfire.
Fiction: Ethel Turner, Joanna Trollope, Sue Miller, Jane Austen, Nancy Mitford. Colette, Anton Checkhov, John Updike, Edith Wharton, Doris Lessing, Alice Munro.
Non Fiction: Ariel Levy, George Orwell, Judith Thurman, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Antony Beevor.
To ice skate like Michelle Kwan. To sing like Donna Summer.
It’s a toss up between Claudine, described by Judith Thurman as the world’s first teenager, from the Claudine novels by Colette; Linda Radlett, in The Pursuit of Love, by Nancy Mitford; and Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick, by John Updike.
JS Bach, Dolly Parton, Doris Lessing – and all those who have endured difficulties and overturned expectations to fulfil their unique creative potential.
My chosen family. Coming to grips with the art of the novel.
Apart from where I live now – in a house on South Park Green backing on to Hampstead Heath, in London.
My companion animals – although they can’t be described as possessions.
The pediatric ward at Tweed Hospital. Although it’s peopled by angels, it feels like hell.
Commitment through the good times and the bad.
Leo. Fu-He. Violet. Adelaide. My son, godson and honorary nieces.
Passive aggression.
That I haven’t had more self-confidence.
At peace.
Forget it, Dude, let’s go bowling.
Photos by Douglas Frost, @douglasfrostphoto
Social media profile close up Maurizio Viani, www.thepocketroad.com
Book cover design by Alissa Dinallo, www.alissadinallo.com
Website by Coast Creative, www.coastcreative.com.au