{"id":18086,"date":"2011-09-02T13:26:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T03:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=18086"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:50:59","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:50:59","slug":"kate-constable-author-of-crow-country-answers-ten-terrifying-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2011\/09\/02\/kate-constable-author-of-crow-country-answers-ten-terrifying-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Constable, author of Crow Country, answers Ten Terrifying Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Booktopia Book Guru asks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kate Constable<\/h1>\n

author of Crow Country<\/a>, The Taste of Lightning<\/a>, Cicada Summer<\/a> and more<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Terrifying Questions<\/h2>\n

—————————<\/p>\n

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

I was born in Melbourne, but my family moved to Papua New Guinea when I was six years old, and I spent most of my childhood there. My father worked as a pilot in the New Guinea Highlands. It was a strange, wonderful and occasionally scary place to grow up. When we moved back to Melbourne, I went to an all-girls secondary school. I was very happy there, but it had the unfortunate side-effect that I couldn\u2019t hold a coherent conversation with a boy until I was about twenty-five years old.<\/p>\n

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

At twelve, I wanted to be an author, and had wanted that since I was four. My whole life was inside books, and in my imagination.<\/p>\n

At eighteen, I wanted to be a lawyer. At least, I was studying law, so I guess I must have wanted to be a lawyer, though that seems incomprehensible now. Or possibly a diplomat. Or a historian. Maybe an actor? Or an archaeologist. Or a philosopher. Or a waitress at the Swagman.<\/p>\n

At thirty, I was working at a record company, but writing was my real job. I hadn\u2019t had any novels published yet, but I was having some modest success with short stories \u2013 enough to encourage me to plug away.<\/p>\n

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At eighteen I was a fervent communist. I was very romantic about the transformative powers of revolution. Now I\u2019m not so sure. These days I\u2019m more of a blushing pink than a glaring red.<\/p>\n

4. What were three works of art \u2013 book or painting or piece of music, etc \u2013 you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s not really a work of art, but The Heart of The Matter<\/em><\/a> \u2013 a documentary film about the work of Carl Jung \u2013 had a profound effect on my imagination. It encouraged me to look beneath surfaces, and to find meaning everywhere.<\/p>\n

A Wizard of Earthsea<\/em><\/a> by Ursula Le Guin inspired me to try my hand at fantasy.<\/p>\n

And a (not very good) fantasy novel, which shall remain un-named, gave me the courage to believe that if they could do it, so could I!<\/p>\n

5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can\u2019t sing. Can\u2019t draw. Never learned an instrument. Too lazy to persist with ballet. Too unco for gymnastics.<\/p>\n

Making up stories is the way I try to make sense of the world. It began when I was about three years old, making up stories in bed before I fell asleep, and I\u2019ve done it ever since.<\/p>\n

6. Please tell us about your latest novel\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Crow Country<\/em> is the story of Sadie, dragged by her mother to live in the tiny country town of Boort. Exploring in a dried-up lake bed, Sadie finds an ancient and secret site, and discovers that she can understand the language of the crows. The crows have a task for her: they throw her back in time, to solve a mystery from long before she was born. Sadie must find a way to right old wrongs without repeating the mistakes of the past.<\/p>\n

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

I desperately wanted to write an Australian fantasy novel that explored the connections of both Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians to our landscape and the magic it contains. I want to thank Gary Murray and the Dja Dja Warrung people for their generosity in helping me to tell the story of Sadie and Crow, and setting it in Dja Dja Warrung country. I hope readers will find something to think about \u2013 about our history, and our future. And I hope they enjoy a really cracking story.\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helen Garner<\/a> is probably my favourite writer. She is so ruthless with herself, the opposite of self-indulgent, and the way she weaves together observation, truth and narrative is so bold it takes my breath away. The precision and beauty of her prose is simply stunning.<\/p>\n

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

To finish my next book. I don\u2019t look much further than that. My career as a published author has coincided almost exactly with my life as a mother, so I\u2019ve learned to have very small goals. Get out of bed. Get the kids to school on time. Write two hundred words. Come up with a dinner everyone will eat. That kind of thing.<\/p>\n

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read as widely as you can. Write as often as you can. Be hard on yourself, but not too hard. Find something you care about, and write about it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t wait for inspiration to strike. It won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Kate, thank you for playing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Kate Constable author of Crow Country, The Taste of Lightning, Cicada Summer and more Ten Terrifying Questions ————————— 1. To begin with why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in Melbourne, but my family moved to Papua New Guinea when I was six years old, and I spent most of my childhood there. My father worked as a pilot in the New Guinea Highlands. It was a strange, wonderful and occasionally scary place to grow up. When we moved back to Melbourne, I went to an all-girls secondary school. I was very happy there, but it had the unfortunate side-effect that I couldn\u2019t hold a coherent conversation with a boy until I was about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,84,85],"tags":[1305,1455,2984,5184,6009],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57617,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086\/revisions\/57617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}