Hilde Hinton avoided being a writer for many years. But after her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Loudness of Unsaid Things, made a number of bestseller lists, everything changed. Now the stories won’t stop. Hilde, dedicated big sister to Connie and Samuel Johnson, lives in a boisterous house in Melbourne with a revolving door for the temporarily defeated and takes great pride in people leaving slightly better than when they arrived. Her children are mostly loved. And so are her books.
Today, to celebrate the upcoming release of her new novel A Solitary Walk on the Moon, Hilde Hinton is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …
Hilde Hinton
1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
Our family moved each year – Dad supplemented his income as a writer by flipping houses. If I had a dollar for every time my dad said ‘where’s my f#$king hammer’, I’d have a yacht; if I wanted a yacht, which I don’t.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
At 12 I wanted to be an architect. I spent hours walking and riding my bike around the suburbs and giving them a mark out of 10. It was house envy because the ones we lived in were dilapidated.
At 18 I had no idea there was anything other than the now – Dad said if I took a tenth of the energy I used on the pursuit of fun, I could run a country.
At 30 I had a secondhand bookshop. My life was a treasure hunt, and I didn’t want to do anything else.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?
That the whole world can stand up and work together. I’ve toned it down somewhat, and now believe small groups can band together and make slight alterations.
4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?
Leonard Cohen showed me that stories don’t have to be happy, John Brack’s paintings showed me that the mundane can be interesting, and walking past my Dad’s study and seeing him write his novel A Low Breed showed me that all you have to do is sit there and the rest will follow.
5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?
As a medium, words require the most imagination. They don’t tell you what to see, hear, touch. Words allow you to form images, imagine sounds, faces, streets. They lead you to feel without telling you what to feel.
‘It really comes down to sitting there and not moving until you’ve written something; even if it’s only a paragraph.’
6. Please tell us about your latest novel!
Evelyn watches her community from her laundromat window and tries desperately to remain at arm’s length. But she can’t help herself. Before she knows it, a patchwork family forms around her. The forgetful old man who collects model trains, the largely invisible local paint shop man, a young mother who isn’t naturally happy and her curious eight-year-old son gravitate to Evelyn, who has to decide whether to do what she has always done, run, or stick around and pay the price of being a part of something.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
Everyone has a story, each life matters and there’s extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.
8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
Just as I can’t pick a favourite song, food, travel destination or what I’m having for dinner, I cannot pick who I most admire in the writing world. I can say that Elizabeth Jolley gave me alternate worlds in my angsty teen years, that no one makes me smile more than Dr Seuss and Bridge of Clay was the last book that made me weep. Basically, any writer who sparks my feelings and/or makes me question my moral compass.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
To be a published writer forever plus infinity.
10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Hmm, yes … find the minutes and do the work. There are no shortcuts and there’s never a good time to start … or is it always a good time to start. Anyway, it really comes down to sitting there and not moving until you’ve written something; even if it’s only a paragraph.
Thank you for playing!
—A Solitary Walk on the Moon by Hilde Hinton (Hachette Australia) is out on the 30th of March.
A Solitary Walk on the Moon
For Evelyn, mornings pass as mornings always do. She ticks off the jobs at the laundromat and gives welcoming smiles to those who come in. If they've earned one.
Evelyn knows what is going on in her community because she pays attention. She sees the weariness of the frazzled shop owners, the woman with the nasty boyfriend, the nice man with the curly-topped dog, the car parking war and the forgetful man. The community might not notice Evelyn, because it is easy to overlook the seemingly ordinary. But Evelyn is far from ordinary...
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