Emma Chapman has a lot to answer for. I stayed up well into the night reading How To Be A Good Wife regularly muttering “You won’t believe this!” to an increasingly
confused dog. She then gave me the worst
book hangover I've had in years – I couldn't think about anyone but Marta and
Hector for weeks. She screwed with my
life and I love her for it. I await her
second novel in much the same way I anticipate my hip replacement: “Oh God I
can’t wait! Oh God the recovery time...”
Emma has invited me to participate in this Writing Process
Blog Hop. You can read Emma’s responses
to the questions here. My answers are as
follows:
1. What am I working on?
Who can say balls?
I've got a couple in the air.
First, I am busy editing my second novel due for publication with Allen
& Unwin in February 2015. It has one
question at its heart: Does doing something monstrous make you a monster? I refrain from answering this question myself
as I refuse to judge my characters.
People do the best they can at any given time given their histories,
hurts, and limitations. And sometimes
they mistake denial for strength.
Secondly, I am busy with the WIP which has a deadline of
July 2014 (pause for maniacal laughter...my publisher isn't reading this,
right?) This one is scheduled for publication with Allen & Unwin February 2016. This is a book which asks the
question: What gives a person personhood? What defines us? Is it our ‘selves’
or our history, and what happens if our history is obliterated?
I have also had a sneak preview of the brand new German cover
of Creepy & Maud (Fremantle Press, 2012) from Königskinder Verlag (Carlsen) in Hamburg, due for release later this year.
2. How does my work differ from others of its
genre?
It’s not cautious in its representation of people and their
foibles and never underestimates the strength or intelligence of young
adults. Which is a nice way of saying I have
been known to make some gatekeepers uncomfortable. And
by uncomfortable I mean some place on the outskirts of anxious travelling
towards appalled. I suppose I never
forgot what it was like to be a young adult.
3. Why do I write what I do?
Because I have to.
Because little people have set up shop in my head and are constantly whispering
stories at me (I think there’s a medication for that...). Because the minute you condescend to young
adults, or try to moralize their experience, you lose them.
4. How does my writing process work?
Badly. I am
constantly distra...Oh look! – Something shiny!...
I don’t plan other than to hurriedly pause to scribble a
post-it if something pops into my head mid-sentence which I think might be useful
at a later point. I then lose the
post-its. My desk looks like the inside
of a skip bin colonized by cats. When I
sit down to write I set a word limit for myself which I really shouldn't do
because it annoys the shit out of me. I
don’t move on to a new sentence until the sentence I’m working on is completely
finished, scrutinized, torn apart and reconstructed. I must have two things: absolute quiet and
time. If the neighbour starts mowing the
lawn during the limited time I have to sit down and write it can make me
homicidal.
So that’s me. And now
I’d like to invite some other writers to share their processes:
Robert Schofield is the author of Heist (Allen & Unwin,
2013) and the upcoming sequel Marble Bar (Allen & Unwin, 2014). He makes me laugh and listens to me
whinge. Sometimes he says philosophical
stuff at me.
Vikki Wakefield is the award winning author of All I EverWanted (Text, 2011) and Friday Brown (Text, 2013). I love her books and I love the way her head
works.
Rebecca Raisin is the author of contemporary romance and
adventure. She is enjoying crazy success
with digital publications Christmas At The Gingerbread Café (Carina, 2013), Chocolate Dreams At TheGingerbread Café (Carina, 2014), The Heart of Bali (Escape, 2014), and Mexican Kimono, under the pseudonym Billie Jones (Really Blue Books, 2013).
If you’d like to take part in this Blog Hop, get in touch
with these wonderful people before they tag elsewhere!
