{"id":26086,"date":"2012-07-02T14:25:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T04:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=26086"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:48:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:48:28","slug":"annah-faulkner-author-of-the-beloved-answers-ten-terrifying-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2012\/07\/02\/annah-faulkner-author-of-the-beloved-answers-ten-terrifying-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Annah Faulkner, author of The Beloved, answers Ten Terrifying Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Annah Faulkner<\/h1>\n

author of The Beloved<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Terrifying Questions<\/h2>\n

\u00a0————————<\/p>\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

Arrived on a cold and murky Melbourne morning, many years ago. . .\u00a0 At the age of five, I moved with our family to post-colonial Port Moresby. What-ho, pith helmets and white clothes for men, sun dresses and cigarettes for women and gin-slings for all. Except for me, that came later – after boarding school in Sydney. A child of Hair<\/em> and Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em>, nostalgic for Janice Joplin and Joe Cocker until I discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine. I studied for four years to became a practitioner, specialising in acupuncture. Loved it, but a lifelong desire to make funny marks on paper and computer screens overcame me and I finally succumbed to being a penurious writer.<\/p>\n

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

Twelve: A writer. Too young to know better. Wrote bad poetry.<\/p>\n

Eighteen: A writer. Slow learner. Wrote bad short stories.<\/p>\n

Thirties: A writer. Stubborn and single-minded. Wrote a book on acupuncture.<\/p>\n

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

That just about everyone else in the world was smarter, more intelligent and more capable than I.<\/p>\n

4. What were three works of art \u2013 book, painting, 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><\/strong>The books of Somerset Maugham<\/a> which I read in my teens \u2013 all of them \u2013 inspired me to ask the eternal philosophical questions \u2013 who we are and why we\u2019re here. He wrote great stories with an elegant style that I found immensely satisfying but which left me still craving for more.<\/p>\n

My music hero is Beethoven. His piano concertos and symphonies invite me to question life\u2019s big themes and his quartets inspire stories. He fuses passion with restraint and genius with craft. His surrender and complete commitment to his art is humbling.<\/p>\n

The art of Chagall and Miro inspires the character in my novel but Aboriginal art inspires me. I can contemplate it for hours, imagining the stories the artists might be telling and allowing them to give rise to stories of my own. The form, voice and earthy beauty of aboriginal paintings rattle my imagination and challenge me to make sense of our place in the world.<\/p>\n

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

Choose to write a novel? I didn\u2019t choose: it happened. Too short for ballet, too self-conscious for theatre, too thick to read music and too late for art, it snuck up on me, which is just as well because otherwise I\u2019d still be chewing my pencil. The Beloved<\/em> was going to be a memoir but I couldn\u2019t stop telling lies.<\/p>\n

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

The Beloved<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a family drama set in post-colonial Port Moresby during the fifties and sixties. It tells the story of Roberta \u201cBertie\u201d Lightfoot, the daughter of a Canadian war bride and an Aussie ex air force pilot. At six Bertie is stricken with polio. Thanks to her mother\u2019s dedication and determination Bertie walks again but is left with a crippled leg. Schoolyard bullying convinces her she\u2019s ugly and she takes refuge in the world of art. An ability to see auras and a passion for drawing give form and voice to the reality of people and the world around her. However, her insight into people\u2019s motivations and the capacity to reveal them on paper unsettle her mother and create an increasing divide between them. In the lush New Guinea landscape, Bertie\u2019s art flourishes under the secret tutelage of her mother\u2019s arch rival but she is not the only one deceiving her family. As secrets come to light the domestic varnish cracks and jealousy, passion and violence threaten to destroy forever the relationship between mother and daughter.<\/p>\n

Click here to order <\/em>The Beloved<\/em><\/strong> from Booktopia,
\nAustralia\u2019s No. 1 Online Book Shop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

Trust yourself. Stay true to who you are. Be courageous in love. Recognise it is not easy, passive or cheap but our greatest opportunity and ultimate gift.<\/p>\n

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

Mark Twain<\/a>. Courageous, witty, intelligent and a master story teller. Also Robert Dessaix<\/a> for the sheer beauty of his words.<\/p>\n

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

To write till I stop. To stop when I no longer enjoy it. To recognise when that happens, if it happens. With luck, it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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

Don\u2019t write to be published. Write because it\u2019s what you want to do. Write with your heart, learn the craft of writing and never stop improving your work. Read books. If you\u2019re patient, persistent and utterly dogged, you will get where you want to go.<\/p>\n

Annah, thank you for playing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to order <\/em>The Beloved<\/em><\/strong> from Booktopia,
\nAustralia\u2019s No. 1 Online Book Shop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Annah Faulkner author of The Beloved Ten Terrifying Questions \u00a0———————— 1. To begin with why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself \u2013 where were you born? Raised? Schooled? Arrived on a cold and murky Melbourne morning, many years ago. . .\u00a0 At the age of five, I moved with our family to post-colonial Port Moresby. What-ho, pith helmets and white clothes for men, sun dresses and cigarettes for women and gin-slings for all. Except for me, that came later – after boarding school in Sydney. A child of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, nostalgic for Janice Joplin and Joe Cocker until I discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine. I studied for four years to became a practitioner, specialising in acupuncture. Loved it, but a lifelong desire to make funny marks on paper and computer screens overcame me and I finally succumbed to being a penurious writer. 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? Twelve: A writer. Too young to know better. Wrote bad poetry. Eighteen: A writer. Slow learner. Wrote bad short stories. Thirties: A writer. Stubborn and single-minded. Wrote a book on acupuncture. 3….<\/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],"tags":[605,993,5184,5297],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26086"}],"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=26086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57203,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26086\/revisions\/57203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}