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Have you always wanted to write? Where did the idea for The Glass Table come from? There is an environmental theme in The Glass Table. Was this intentional? Who are your favorite authors or books and how have they influenced your writing? You don't have children, but you write children's books. How come? |
Have you always wanted to write? English was my best and preferred subject at school, and as my husband, Steve, will attest, I am a bit of a storyteller. I favor a harmless embroidery of the facts to make a story more interesting for the listener. In the early years of our marriage, Steve would correct these 'paddings', ruining what was otherwise a perfectly good story. Consequently, he became known as Captain Boring. At school, in Year 11, I was relaying events from my weekend to a group of girls. The audience grew larger and larger, as did my story. At the end, one girl asked rhetorically, "For real?" To which I confessed, "Well, no ..." and my moment of fame ended sans the glory and reverence as the 'crowd' dissolved faster than an ice cube in Cloncurry. I learnt from this, that one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story—it is to everyone's detriment. So, after reading any, part or all of my current and future works, you find yourself wondering if a storyline is autobiographical, the answer is, "no". It may be based on a skerrick of reality, but will be embellished beyond recognition.
Where did the idea for The Glass Table come from? From a dream Steve had while we were on a sailing holiday in the Whitsundays. We were lying in our bunk staring up at the stars, when Steve told me about his dream ie the mere two seconds he could recall—people were swimming in a lake and then they were seated at a glass table. Since he did not mention that in the dream, the swimmers were adults and the glass table was in a boardroom, I assumed the glass table was in the lake, and so the story emerged this way. This is quite typical of spousal communications ie incomplete information (from male) = assumptions (by woman) = man and woman in different orbits.
You dedicated The Glass Table to your nephews, Jack and Jordan, and there are two characters in the book with the same name. Are the characters based on your nephews? Yes, Jack and Jordan in The Glass Table
You also dedicated The Glass Table to Daniel Morcombe. Who is he, and why did you dedicate the book to him? Daniel Morcombe is a thirteen-year-old Australian boy who was abducted on 7 December 2003, and has not been seen since, or found. Daniel was meant to catch the 1:35 pm bus to a shopping centre for a haircut and to buy Christmas presents for his family. The bus he was supposed to catch had broken down a few miles before his stop. The replacement bus did not stop because the spot where Daniel waited was an unofficial bus stop. However, the driver of the bus did call the depot for another bus to go for Daniel. Eyewitnesses and the bus driver saw Daniel at the stop at 2:10pm with a man standing close by him. When the second bus came a few minutes later, Daniel and the man were gone. In The Glass Table, the police chief and others in the community believe the children have been abducted. This is intended as a subliminal message to children to be aware of the danger.
There is an environmental theme in The Glass Table. Was this intentional? I never started out to write a story with an environmental theme—for me, it was always a mystery/thriller with a touch of fantasy. However, as you tell a story about twelve children living in a river, you need to consider their living conditions ie what would it be like to live in a river as a child spirit. The children learn that what humans do above, beside and near the river affects their living conditions and upsets the greenie witch who cast the spell. For example, when it rains, rubbish from the streets flows into their river, and a development on the riverbank affects the ecosystem. I hope it is a fun way to explain the realities of our diminishing freshwater supplies, and is more of a suggestion for readers than a lecture, which may or may not influence later thoughts and attitudes.
I read your bio. You talk a lot about death—your brothers, grandfather, and the Mackay sisters. How have these moments affected you and your writing? Death affects you in a profound way, and since writers tend to write about what they know, death does feature in all of my books. In The Glass Table, Jack hikes to Lake Como after running away from home because he thinks his parents no longer care about him after the tragic death of his little brother. As a child, when a sibling dies (speaking from my experience), there is no way to understand your parent's grieving, but as an adult, you can see the experience with an entirely different perspective, and this is why in the book Jack comes to realize that in fact his parents were not abandoning him, as he thought, but were suffering a great loss. Obviously, the deaths of my brothers were significant moments in my life. What I learned from John's death is that regret can and will destroy you, so wherever possible, as best you can, avoid actions and words that will spawn regrettable moments that will torture you infinitum. Judith and Susan Mackay—that was 40 years ago and I have not forgotten them, just as I will not forget Daniel Morcombe, Madeleine McCann, or the Beaumont children. This surely would be the absolute worst for a parent as if it is not horrendous enough for a parent to lose a child, but to never know what happened or where the child is ... I cannot imagine.
Who are your favorite authors or books and how have they influenced your writing? I wish I could say that I am an avid reader of the literary greats eg Faulkner I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde—his wit and sarcasm is the standard to which I aspire. As a tribute, Oscar features in my novel, Being Anti-Social since the main character similarly believes the words of Oscar Wilde are almost biblical in their value. I also like Mark Twain for the same reason. Of past greats, I like John Steinbeck
You don't have children, but you write children's books. How come? I write both children and adult books. Basically, I write whatever germinates. The Glass Table My two adult novels: Rain and Being Anti-Social, are poles apart although people die in both—sorry. PS: we do have 15 nephews and nieces between us, plus four sponsored children: Oscar, Dolon, John Paul, and Sarita-maya.
You met and married your husband when you were very young. What is the secret to staying happily married? #1 criterion for a happy marriage, in my opinion, is mutual respect—everything flows from it eg trust flows from respect, not the other way around, in my opinion. #2 criterion is to have fun. Laugh a lot, be ridiculous, and don't take yourself too seriously. That way you won't take offence when none was intended, or sweat the little stuff, or even the big stuff.
What does the "K" stand for in your name? Did you add this to sound like JK Rowling? Do you have any nicknames? "K" is the legitimate first initial of my middle name, Kayrene. I did not want to use my middle initial as I do not like my middle name however, my preferred website address, without the K, was already taken. Kayrene is a name my mother created. Her name is Catherine although she was called Kay for many years, and my aunty was Irene = Kayrene. As I understand it, the K in JK Rowling, stands for Kathleen, which is not in fact JK Rowling's middle name—she does not have a middle name but had to choose an initial, and since Kathleen was her beloved grandmother, K was it, and what a legendry initial it has turned out to be. I have several nicknames that have been with me forever. To my brother, parents, nephews, sister-in-law, friends etc, I am Leighzie or Aunty Leighzie. When we were young kids, we all had an "ie" ending to our names eg Johnnie, Paulie, Leighzie, Markie. When we were older, it turned into an "o" eg Johnno, Paulo, and Marko, however I remained Leighzie. Steve has two nicknames for me, not including Schmoopy Poopy (adapted from the genius, Seinfeld episode, the Soup Nazi). Mostly, he calls me Leo. Now you may think that this might logically follow from that childhood era when "o" was added to our first names, but not so. It comes from a character created by Paul Hogan on his TV show, The Paul Hogan Show, which aired in Australia in the 70s-80s. Children please look away at this point while I explain ... Leo Wanker, played by Hogan, was an inept daredevil stuntman. You can watch Leo's stunts on YouTube. I have no idea how this nickname became associated with my good self however it stuck, and has been with me nigh on thirty years now. Steve also calls me Baldrick, Balderico or Balders for short. This originates from a British sitcom series, Blackadder, starring Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder (me Lord), and Tony Robinson as his dogsbody, Baldrick. Since I am now a fulltime writer, and unemployed/unemployable, Baldrick/Balders legitimately reflects my current station in life. This nickname was recently expanded to Baldrick Blowtorch. When sending an email from his Blackberry, Steve typed in "Balderico". The Blackberry suggested "Blowtorch" as the correct spelling, so now I am Baldrick Blowtorch (BBT). It has a super-hero ring to it. Some favorite lines from Lord Blackadder: "Baldrick, if a hungry cannibal cracked open your brain there wouldn't be enough inside to cover a small water biscuit!" "Baldrick, you wouldn't recognize a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on a harpsichord singing 'subtle plans are here again'." "I fear the words "I have a cunning plan" are rapidly marching towards this conversation with ill-deserved confidence." "As a reward, Baldrick, take a short holiday ... did you enjoy it?"
I did a search for the other books you mentioned in your bio, but have not been able to find them anywhere. Have they been published? Not as yet. Rain is likely to be published late 2010 and Being Anti-Social sometime in 2011. A River Somewhere is still a work in progress.
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Photos courtesy, WWF
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are based on my nephews in looks and personality. Jack is the mature, wise one (I often go to him for advice), and Jordan is the king of one-liners. He will not let matters rest until he is satisfied with the outcome, eg the carp sub-plot in 
, 
, 
and 
however, I rather enjoy more irreverent, modern, non-literary works that make me laugh, such as 
and 
. I love 
by George Orwell, and since it is only 120 pages, can be read while cooking dinner or doing ab curls. 
by Joseph Heller is also an all-time favorite, and is featured in my novel, 
