Very excited to be invited to speak on a panel about dark issues in Young Adult in the inaugural Australian and New Zealand Festival of Literature and Arts in London. The festival runs from May 29 to June 1, and features some amazing authors, artists, and filmmakers, as well as some pretty impressive dignitaries. So, if you find yourself in London, come and say hi.
The talented Eliza Graham, author of Playing with the Moon, Restitution, Jubilee, The History Room and The One I Was, as well as young adult novel, Blitz Kid has asked me to take the baton for a Blog Hop, called The Writing Process.
As with these things, there are four questions which I’ll do my best not to fudge too shamefully. Or maybe I’ll use a pretty colour when I do.
You caught me at a great time. I’ve just finished my next novel – no spoilers yet, I’m sorry – and have embarked upon the gratifying but also mildly terrifying task of trying to adapt my debut novel, The Whole of My World, for screen.
Well, first of all, I have written about a teenage girl who loves footy. (That’s Australian Football for the uninitiated.) Apparently no one else has done this before. So there’s that. My new one deals with a different version of what is becoming my favourite conversation – girls finding their way in traditionally masculine worlds. I don’t know if that’s different enough, but it’s mine. And I’m keeping it.*
(*I reserve the right to write about whatever takes my fancy – as long as my publisher will have me.)
For a start, I steal gleefully and unapologetically from my own life, so that’s driven most of my writing so far. But I’m running out of interesting stuff to steal, so I will have to do something interesting or start making things up.*
More specifically, I write about teenage girls because: 1) I was one, and I wasn’t very good at it, so I’m hoping to get a second chance vicariously through my way-more-together (eventually) characters; and 2) I have two daughters and I’m hoping one day they might be vaguely interested in reading one of my stories. (Though I’m not holding my breath.)
(*Actually I made up a LOT of The Whole of My World, and my new novel deals with a world I have coveted but never been fortunate enough to be involved in, so lots of make believe there too. But I will always steal bits from RL whenever narratively – and legally! – possible.)
Some days brilliantly. Others not so much. Generally I have to hide in a local cafe for a few hours, wifi-free, and knock out some pages before I feel confident enough that I won’t spend the rest of the day playing Words with Friends or trying to get Ricky Gervais to retweet me. (@nichmelbourne, Ricky, if you’re interested.) After that, I tend to library shop until I can find one with a good power source but without Story Time for Toddlers happening concurrently.
So that’s me. Next Monday, it’s the turn of the amazingly awesome Annie Collins – a fiction writer currently completing her degree in Publishing, Writing & Editing at RMIT (Melbourne), and winner of the Monash Literary Festival award. Check her out here www.ajcollins.com.au.
Can’t wait to chat with the fabulous Libbi Gorr this Sunday (March 9) on 774 ABC Radio – I’ve been a big fan of Libbi’s work for years now, and am keen to finally meet her. We’ll be talking footy, girls, women and The Whole of My World, among other things.
It all starts at 10.30 am. Hopefully I won’t make a total fool of myself. Or if I do, feel free to mock me shamelessly* on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Whole-of-My-World/463247030436875
*Of course, by “mock me shamelessly” I mean “congratulate me generously and publicly”.
Australian writers rock. We know it, and we love them. But it’s not always easy to discover the Australian talent that is right under our noses.
From Australia With Love Blog Hop introduces you to 18 Aussie authors across a variety of categories and genres. Each author is hosting three of their fellow blog hop participants between now and Valentine’s Day to let you find out more about them. So follow them on twitter, like their Facebook page and visit their blogs during the blog hop period to discover more great Australian writers.
And to show how much these Aussie authors love their readers, they’ve donated some great prizes for you to win!
Author & Facebook Page |
|
Blog/Website |
|
Adult |
||
|
New Adult and Young Adult |
||
|
Nicole Hayes |
||
|
MG & Chapter Books* |
||
*Also visit YAtopia for additional MG posts.
Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Liz Ellis at the ABC studios about The Whole of My World. It was a lot of fun meeting someone I greatly admire, but also being able to talk about some of the bigger themes I explored in the story. Was a fun morning, and even better hearing the interview on air. I’ll include the link here when it’s available.
But in the meantime, here’s the file for your listening pleasure…
