Thursday
February 7, 2013
Where did you grow up and how did your early experiences influence your writing?
"I grew up in Glenorchy, Tassie. My parents lived on a little piece of land, half cherry orchard, half vineyard, a few hundred feet from the Cadbury factory. Practically my entire childhood smelled like chocolate.
I wasn't raised in a structured environment, you know how it is: what college are you going to, what career will you pick? We just lived; if we were happy and healthy at the end of the day we called it a success.
I helped out in mom and dad's store, but most of the time I roamed free and developed a passion for surfing early in my teenage years. From November till May I left home after breakfast and didn't return until I got hungry, late afternoon. I trekked and surfed and wandered.
My dad faked cardiac events every time he found out I went to Ship Stern Bluff again. I had absolutely no sense of danger as a teenager, came close to real trouble a couple of times, broke a bone, but never quit.
I wasn't taught to plan for the future and delay gratification, and in a way it made taking risks more acceptable. I didn't agonize over decisions or question whether writing was time well spent, I just let the gift flow through me. Between the surfing and the chocolate factory I didn't realize how unusual my upbringing was until I came to New York.
When was that?
1995. That's the year I met the love of my life who had come all the way to Tasmania for the waves, the surf is unique and challenging on the southern edge of the island.
Caelan was from LA but had decided to move to New York to help some old friends and business associates tinker with code. This story sounded so daring and revolutionary in the early nineties I decided on the spot to go to New York with him. I was nineteen at the time and knew everything about the world.
The flight left July 22 on a frigid morning and arrived in New York the next day, in a sweltering 89deg F. I wore a heavy winter coat and three overlapping sweaters and looked like Yeti.
Caelan didn't care; if I showed up swaddled in bubble wrap it would have been ok with him. We were young, wild and free!
When did you start writing?
You mean when did I start getting serious about my writing?
After we got to New York we worked all sorts of odd jobs, you wouldn't believe the list. At some point we ended up painting props and decor for a local community theater, I dressed up like Santa Claus for the holidays, you get the idea.
Caelan figured we should find something a little less precarious and I managed to talk my way into getting financing for the tiniest wine shop in existence. It was on John Street between a handmade candle store and a pizza kitchen and couldn't have been larger than eighty square feet. I told the loan officer my father owned a winery and I grew up learning at his knee. I was very sure of myself in my youth, I guess I sounded convincing. I didn't mention that we only made wine for the family in two varieties: white and red.
Being the luckiest youngsters in the world we chose a good location and sales picked up quickly. There isn't much to do in a wine shop, and I spent a lot of time looking out the window into the street at all the people who passed by, trying to guess what their lives were like.
I started writing about them, I felt their stories wanted to be told.
What is the first story you ever wrote?
It wasn't an actual story, but was structured like one. I wrote a letter about my grandparents, who managed to live a beautiful and dignified life despite the wars, the food rations, the suppression of human rights. Their life is to this day a reminder we can shape our destiny, even in unfavorable circumstances.
What is the story behind your latest book?
It is unabashedly Utopian. One day I set aside the worries and the cares and decided to play with what ifs: what if we could cure every disease? What if there were no limits to scientific discovery? What if we pushed every boundary of human audacity? What if gender wasn't relevant to the path one pursues in life? What if we lived forever? What if we never lacked for anything? That's how Terra Two was born.
Describe your desk. Where do you write?
During the early years it was the merchandising counter. I got used to working this way, it frees me from the need to have a specific environment in order to focus. The stories are already written when I commit them to paper anyway, I just need a place to sit the laptop down.
How do you spend your time when not writing?
We don't own the wine shop anymore, but while we were there I spent a lot of time with our neighbor, the candle store owner, an elderly lady with the voice of a drill sergeant and a heart of gold. She taught me to make things by hand, an activity I find very rewarding. That and learning from my beautiful children what makes life worth living.
Describe your writing process.
I don't think I write the stories, I think my stories find me, with their characters and settings, and the quirky little details of life.
What do your fans mean to you?
Writing is never a monologue, always a conversation. When a raconteur tells a story there is always an audience, there are questions about the logic of events, about the missing details, about alternate plot twists. The storyteller has to be able to answer those questions and the answers have to be quick, interesting and believable. This is what my fans mean to me: they look at the sparse frame of my tall tale and help me fill it with filigree.
What is the greatest joy of writing?
Ninety percent of this autobiography is bogus. Is it more interesting than the real one? Most definitely. This is the greatest joy of writing, you get to create your own world just the way you want it to be, unchallenged.
We storytellers are glorified liars. We revel in elevating deception to the standing of art.
Photo by Molly Blackbird on Unsplash