{"id":28226,"date":"2012-10-24T16:57:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T05:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=28226"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:46:29","slug":"caroline-overington-author-of-ghost-child-i-came-to-say-goodbye-matilda-is-missing-and-now-sisters-of-mercy-answers-five-facetious-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/caroline-overington-author-of-ghost-child-i-came-to-say-goodbye-matilda-is-missing-and-now-sisters-of-mercy-answers-five-facetious-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroline Overington, author of Ghost Child, I Came To Say Goodbye, Matilda Is Missing and now Sisters of Mercy, answers Five Facetious Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Caroline Overington<\/h1>\n

author of\u00a0 Ghost Child<\/em><\/a>, I Came To Say Goodbye<\/em><\/a>, Matilda Is Missing<\/em><\/a> and now Sisters of Mercy<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Five Facetious Questions<\/h2>\n

\u00a0——————————-<\/p>\n

1. Every writer spends at least one afternoon going from bookshop to bookshop making sure his or her latest book is facing out and neatly arranged. How far have you gone to draw attention to your own books in a shop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a book shop story, but I once asked my Mum to carry a copy of my latest book onto the plane when she was coming to visit me, and to gasp and says things like, \u2018wow, this is amazing!\u2019 while pretending to read it. She just rolled her eyes at me.<\/p>\n

2. So you\u2019re a published author, almost a minor celebrity and for some reason you\u2019ve been let into a party full of \u2018A-listers\u2019 \u2013 what do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a very good chance that I wouldn\u2019t know who anybody was. I would be bumping into Zayne or Payne or Layne or whatever his name is from One Direction<\/em>, and saying things like, \u201cAnd why exactly aren\u2019t you in bed at this late hour?\u201d<\/p>\n

And if by chance my 12-year-old daughter was with me, she\u2019d be dying of embarrassment.\"\"<\/p>\n

3. Some write because they feel compelled to, some are Artists and do it for the Muse, some do it for the cash (one buck twenty a book) and some do it because they think it makes them more attractive to the opposite sex \u2013 why do you do write? (NB: don\u2019t say -\u2018cause I can\u2019t sing, tap or paint!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m attracted to industries with what might some have cruelly called the \u201cdying industries\u201d \u2026. Besides being a novelist, I\u2019m also a newspaper journalist.<\/p>\n

My ancestors were coopers and blacksmiths, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

4. Have you ever come to the end of writing a particularly fine paragraph, paused momentarily, chuffed with your own genius, only to find you\u2019ve been sitting at the computer nude or with your dress half-way over your head or shaving cream on your face or toilet paper sticking out the back of your undies or paused to find that you\u2019re singing We are the Champions<\/em> at the top of your voice, having exchanged the words \u2018we are\u2019 for \u2018I am\u2019 and dropping an \u2018s\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No? Well, what\u2019s your most embarrassing writing moment?\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not book related, but I was once asked to cover an important match (game? tournament? whatever) between St Kilda, and some other Victorian football team, maybe Fitzroy \u2026 this was ages ago, when I was a cub sports reporter for The Age.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never covered football before, and I went to a lot of trouble to make the copy sing, and quite proudly handed it in.<\/p>\n

The sports editor, a busy and wonderful man, read it and said, \u2018yes, lovely, marvellous description of the lawn and the leaves and the white picket fence around the ground \u2026 but what was the score, Caroline?\u2019<\/p>\n

I said, \u2018the score?\u2019<\/p>\n

He said, \u2018Yes, the score. As in, who won??\u2019<\/p>\n

It hadn\u2019t occurred to me to take that down, but apparently people want to know.<\/p>\n

5. Rodin placed his thinker on the loo \u2013 where and\/or when do you seem to get your best ideas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I go out to parties and listen very carefully and when somebody says something smart and funny, and after everyone has stopped laughing, I say: \u2018oh, that\u2019s good! Do you have copyright on that?\u2019<\/p>\n

Nine times in 10 they\u2019ll be chuffed and they\u2019ll say, \u2018Nah, you can have it\u2019 not thinking I actually will steal it from them. But I very definitely will.<\/p>\n

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

Booktopians are familiar with Caroline’s novels, we have gobbled them down one after the next. We can’t wait for Caroline’s new novel, Sisters of Mercy<\/em> which is out in November – details below…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Sisters of Mercy<\/i><\/h1>\n

by Caroline Overington<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sisters of Mercy is the haunting story of two sisters – one has vanished, the other is behind bars…<\/b><\/p>\n

Snow Delaney was born a generation and a world away from her sister, Agnes.<\/p>\n

Until recently, neither even knew of the other’s existence. They came together only for the reading of their father’s will – when Snow discovered, to her horror, that she was not the sole beneficiary of his large estate.<\/p>\n

Now Snow is in prison and Agnes is missing, disappeared in the eerie red dust that blanketed Sydney from dawn on September 23, 2009.<\/p>\n

With no other family left, Snow turns to crime journalist Jack Fawcett, protesting her innocence in a series of defiant letters from prison. Has she been unfairly judged? Or will Jack’s own research reveal a story even more shocking than the one Snow wants to tell?<\/p>\n

With Sisters of Mercy<\/i> Caroline Overington once again proves she is one of the most exciting new novelists of recent years.<\/p>\n

Click here to buy Sisters of Mercy<\/em> from Booktopia,
\nAustralia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Caroline Overington author of\u00a0 Ghost Child, I Came To Say Goodbye, Matilda Is Missing and now Sisters of Mercy Five Facetious Questions \u00a0——————————- 1. Every writer spends at least one afternoon going from bookshop to bookshop making sure his or her latest book is facing out and neatly arranged. How far have you gone to draw attention to your own books in a shop? It\u2019s not a book shop story, but I once asked my Mum to carry a copy of my latest book onto the plane when she was coming to visit me, and to gasp and says things like, \u2018wow, this is amazing!\u2019 while pretending to read it. She just rolled her eyes at me. 2. So you\u2019re a published author, almost a minor celebrity and for some reason you\u2019ve been let into a party full of \u2018A-listers\u2019 \u2013 what do you do? There is a very good chance that I wouldn\u2019t know who anybody was. I would be bumping into Zayne or Payne or Layne or whatever his name is from One Direction, and saying things like, \u201cAnd why exactly aren\u2019t you in bed at this late hour?\u201d And if by chance…<\/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":[1163,2013,2197,2535,3571,4894],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28226"}],"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=28226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57064,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28226\/revisions\/57064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}