{"id":166965,"date":"2022-06-06T09:35:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T22:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=166965"},"modified":"2022-06-07T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T01:00:19","slug":"ten-terrifying-questions-with-hayley-scrivenor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2022\/06\/06\/ten-terrifying-questions-with-hayley-scrivenor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Terrifying Questions with Hayley Scrivenor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Hayley<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hayley Scrivenor is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival. Originally from a small country town, Hayley now lives and writes on Dharawal country and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong on the south coast of New South Wales. Dirt Town<\/a><\/strong> (our Book of the Month for June!) is her first novel. An earlier version of the book was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Hayley Scrivenor is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Hayley<\/a>

Hayley Scrivenor<\/p><\/div>\n

1. To begin with, why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself \u2013 where were you born? Raised? Schooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Wagga Wagga, in New South Wales. We moved around a lot when I was kid because my dad was in the army, but when my parents split up, I moved with my mum to a small country town near Wagga called The Rock. We stayed there for all of primary school. When I was due to start high school, we moved to Wollongong. I\u2019ve done some stints overseas \u2013 in France, and China \u2013 but I did all of my university study, including a PhD in Creative Writing, in Wollongong. I feel very lucky to live on Dharawal country. <\/p>\n\n\n

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly? At twelve, I most wanted to be skinny. That makes me so sad, now, to realise that is what I would have wished for above all else. At eighteen I dreamed of a job that involved languages, maybe working for the UN (I may have been overestimating my language abilities a teensy bit, I can see in hindsight!). And at thirty I wanted to be a published novelist. I\u2019ll be thirty-two when my first book comes out, so I think my dreams have improved, for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don\u2019t have now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That there was a single answer to things. I used to feel very weak-willed because I invariably found myself swayed by the story in front of me. Now I value that ability to see the many sides of something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. What are three works of art \u2013 this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc \u2013 that influenced your development as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, I\u2019m glad this isn\u2019t worded as a question of degree \u2013 I honestly couldn\u2019t tell you what has most influenced my writing, because it feels like it changes from day to day, hour to hour. But the following works are ones I\u2019ve been thinking about this week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Little Friend<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Donna Tartt was a book I read over and over again. It was the novel that kept me company as I tried to figure out character, it helped me have good sentences in my ears, as the poet Jane Kenyon would say. I know The Secret History<\/em> is most people\u2019s favourite Tartt book, but The Little Friend<\/em> just fell open in front of me at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I knew I ever wanted to write, the Billy Joel song \u2018Scenes from an Italian Restaurant\u2019 taught me that the specifics matter. You don\u2019t choose your influences, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Lucashenko\u2019s \u2018Dreamers\u2019 is my favourite short story of all time. It\u2019s a masterclass in structure. Usually, we\u2019re told that a satisfying plot is one where we see the characters change. What is so truly great about \u2018Dreamers\u2019 is that by the end of the story you are the one that has changed \u2013 the character is in the same position as they were at the beginning, but your knowledge of them has altered what you want to happen. It\u2019s pure magic and it taught me something vital about plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I couldn\u2019t get by without the plausible deniability fiction offers me.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can honestly say I was built for the novel form. As an aspiring writer, for a long time I worried that working on novel just meant that I would find out I couldn\u2019t write more slowly than if I were to work on short stories instead. But I followed the little voice that told me a novel was what I wanted to do. Over time, I learned that a novel becomes a vessel that expands to fit everything it needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Please tell us about your latest novel!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the hottest November on record in a small country town in New South Wales when Esther Bianchi doesn\u2019t make it home from school. Esther\u2019s best friend, Ronnie, is determined to find Esther and bring her home. Their friend, Lewis, saw something on the day Esther went missing that he can\u2019t speak about because it would mean revealing his deepest secret. Constance, the mother of the missing girl, can feel her life falling apart around her. When Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels, a Sydney cop who is reeling from a relationship breakdown, comes looking for the missing girl, what she learns will reopen old wounds and set new events in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is called Dirt Town<\/em> because that is what the kids of Durton call the place where they live. It might not sound it, but it\u2019s an affectionate term. Ultimately, it\u2019s the story of what the loss of a young girl does to a whole community, and my goal is that by the end we care that Esther is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That we are not alone in our suffering, or in our joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-fiction writers, particular those who write about the big structures in life through the lens of their own experience. I simply couldn\u2019t do what they do. I\u2019m a voracious reader of non-fiction. Recently I read and loved Eda Gunaydin\u2019s Root & Branch<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, I love Sarah Krasnostein, Rick Morton, Chloe Hooper. I simply don\u2019t know how they do it. I couldn\u2019t get by without the plausible deniability fiction offers me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to write novels for the rest of my life. I want to continue to write sentences that ring true, that satisfy some inner criteria that is always being refined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Write down the bits from stories and articles and novels that speak to you. Try to explain why they are good, drill down to see what is actually happening at the level of the sentence, the word. Something happens to your own writing if you do that enough, something good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for playing!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Dirt Town<\/a><\/em> by Hayley Scrivenor (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dirt<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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