{"id":167394,"date":"2022-06-08T14:21:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T03:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=167394"},"modified":"2022-06-08T14:21:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T03:21:05","slug":"read-a-qa-with-lucy-christopher-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2022\/06\/08\/read-a-qa-with-lucy-christopher-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Lucy Christopher | Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Lucy<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lucy Christopher is a British-Australian writer, whose first YA novel Stolen was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, won a 2011 USBBY Outstanding International Book Award, and received the UK\u2019s Branford Boase Award. Lucy has written several other novels for young people, was the director of the MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University, and is now a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Tasmania. Release, a companion to Stolen, is her first novel for adults. When not writing, Lucy spends her time daydreaming, walking dogs, and visiting family and friends spread across the world. She is passionate about the importance of wild environments.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Lucy Christopher is here to answer a few of our questions about her new book, Release<\/a><\/strong> (an adult follow-up to her hit YA novel Stolen). Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Lucy<\/a>

Lucy Christopher<\/p><\/div>\n

Please tell us about your book, Release<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong> Release, my debut novel for an adult audience, is about Gemma Toombs, a 27-year-old woman, who is unable to move forward from her traumatic past of being kidnapped when she was 16 years old; unable to forget the influence of her kidnapper and the wild outback land that he took her to. When she receives notification of her kidnapper\u2019s release from prison in Perth, she knows this could be the closure she needs. What she doesn\u2019t yet know is whether she wants revenge or love when she meets him again. She sets forth on a journey towards him \u2013 wanting to both hurt and love him \u2013 but she must navigate through a physical and emotional landscape that has changed over the ten years since she was last there: she must learn a new path. But will she find the release she so desperately craves?<\/p>\n\n\n

This is an adult companion novel to your young adult thriller Stolen<\/a><\/em>. Why did you want to return to this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> To my knowledge, this is the first time someone has written an adult book with a link to an earlier young adult novel, growing up with her characters. It is a novel that tracks a maturation: of characters, of myself and my writing process, of even the original readers of Stolen<\/em>. As a writer-academic, I am primarily interested in creative process and all the many components that make up how a story is told. It seems to me that the major, and most distinctive, part of a writing process is the writer herself, most notably her perspective. But a writer\u2019s perspective can \u2013 and I would also say should \u2013 change over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, as the years went on after writing Stolen<\/em>, and the characters, the setting and that situation still stayed in my mind, I became interested in how I might construct their story ten years later. Particularly, I was interested in how the passing of time might alter my perspective of these characters, their place, and their situation. A lot has happened to me in these past ten years, and also to the setting where these books are based. I have witnessed and contributed to the #MeToo movement, I am now old enough to potentially have my own 16-year-old girl, and my relationship to this outback land is now as an Australian estranged. The land itself is more developed and populated. The notion of time and how it affects memory, storytelling and truth telling is something I wanted to explore in Release<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a writer, what interests you about coercive relationships and the power dynamic inherent within them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> I am endlessly fascinated in this topic. Essentially, power involves one person influencing, ultimately changing, the behavior of another. Conflict is how much resistance that other person puts up. These are the basic ingredients of story. This is every story right here. When you add in nuances on how one character changes another character \u2013 what methods they use \u2013 then you have a whole, complicated plot. Coercive relationships are something we have all experienced on one level or another. I am interested in the stories that people tell as part of those coercive relationships (both as perpetrators and survivors). I am interested in the role that narrative making plays in all this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who did you write this book for? Who do you wish would read it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> Firstly, I wrote this book for me, as a writer interested in exploring her process and how time and place affects it. I also wrote it for the original readers of Stolen<\/em>, those ones who never forgot about that book and who kept the faith and grew up in the meantime of me writing Release<\/em>. Most of all, however, I wrote Release <\/em>for a readership interested in relationships where there is a power imbalance. I wrote this book to explore the complicated and conflicted feelings that result from these relationships, and as a way to validate the often-contradictory experiences and senses of self and truth that arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘It seems to me that the major, and most distinctive, part of a writing process is the writer herself, most notably her perspective. But a writer\u2019s perspective can \u2013 and I would also say should \u2013 change over time.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> Ever since I was a little girl, I always wrote. I was an only child, living between two families and two countries \u2013 it felt like I was always writing a letter to someone, telling the story about whatever was happening in my life at the time. When I was with my UK family, I was writing to friends in Australia. And when I was in Australia, I was writing to my UK family. So, I guess I\u2019m saying that the process of using writing to express my thoughts and to communicate with others was very familiar. Throughout school, I always knew I wanted to do something creative as a job. I tried acting for a while, dabbled with the film industry, before settling on a dream of becoming a writer. Once I had done an MA in Creative Writing, that was when the dream really started to take shape. After completing that, I got offered to teach Creative Writing and I also met my first editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the last book you read and loved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> I recently read Vikki Wakefield\u2019s upcoming debut novel for adults, After You Were Gone<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and I adored it. There are some crossovers here with my novel too, at least regarding theme, setting and style, so this book was right in my wheelhouse anyway. However, I really appreciated Vikki\u2019s clear skill in creating heart stopping tension. I read it until about 2am one night, I had to know how it ended!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope readers will discover in Release<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC: <\/strong>I hope Release <\/em>will make readers think. I hope the story will stay in minds long after the reading process, and I hope the novel may urge readers to think about ideas of truth and perception, the influence of time and place, and also what it takes to find a sense of release. I hope Release<\/em>, together with my earlier novel Stolen<\/em>, may also encourage readers to think about notions of storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LC:<\/strong> There is so much I want to do! I\u2019m playing with my next novel for adults, which I would love to set in moody and gorgeous Tasmania. I am also working on my next YA novel, which will be short and extremely tense. And, of course, I am also spending time settling in and adjusting to my new life in beautiful Hobart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Lucy!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Release<\/a><\/em> by Lucy Christopher (Text Publishing) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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