{"id":49151,"date":"2015-06-27T14:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=49151"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:23:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:23:18","slug":"rochelle-siemienowicz-author-of-fallen-answers-ten-terrifying-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2015\/06\/27\/rochelle-siemienowicz-author-of-fallen-answers-ten-terrifying-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochelle Siemienowicz, author of Fallen, answers Ten Terrifying Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Rochelle Siemienowicz<\/h1>\n

author of\u00a0Fallen<\/a><\/em><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Terrifying Questions
\n____________
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\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 Geelong, Victoria, but my family moved so quickly and so often that I have no memory of it. My parents were Seventh-day Adventist missionaries and we lived in various parts of New Guinea and Fiji until I was 14 and then we moved to Perth where I finished High School. I moved to Melbourne to start University in the early 1990s and have been here ever since.<\/p>\n

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

Twelve: A schoolteacher because although I really wanted to be a writer I didn\u2019t think it was possible.
\nEighteen: A journalist because it seemed the likeliest way of making a living as a writer. Or an academic, because I was good at writing essays and this seemed a continuation of that.
\nThirty: A film journalist and sometime novelist as this combined all my passions \u2013 cinema, literature and connecting with communities of likeminded creative people.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Author:<\/strong> Rochelle Siemienowicz<\/p><\/div>\n

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

I was raised in a strict religious household and believed that the end of the world was imminent \u2013 that Jesus Christ was going to return in the clouds and rescue his chosen people while the rest of the earth burned. These days I\u2019m an atheist, though I still harbour apocalyptic fears \u2013 now related to environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

4. What were three big events \u2013 in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example \u2013 you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The huge changes in Australian Higher Education during the late 1990s and early 2000s meant that an academic career seemed too hard and too precarious to pursue. I was surrounded by bitter academics and underpaid sessional staff, so I finished my PhD on Australian cinema and fled academe, never to return.<\/p>\n

2. Becoming involved in The Big Issue magazine\u2019s family of writers and editors from 1997 until the present has been life changing. The Big Ish was the first publication to pay me for my words and so many of my closest friends and associates are people I met there.<\/p>\n

3. Reading Andrew McGahan\u2019s searingly honest, funny and distinctively Australian Vogel-winning debut novel Praise (1991) changed my life. I fell in love with McGahan\u2019s candor, courage, and skilful blending of autobiography and fiction. This was controlled confessional writing at its most deceptively simple \u2013 unafraid to get dirty, but also able to rise above the grime into pure poetry and wry philosophical reflection.<\/p>\n

5. Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc \u2013 why have you chosen to write a book? aren\u2019t they obsolete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was raised on books, especially the Bible, and I always wanted to have my name on the cover of one. I love to hold the physical objects and there\u2019s nothing quite as immersive as a really good book. Also, you can read them during take-off and landing when flying on an aeroplane.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Fallen<\/em> is my first book. It\u2019s a memoir about sex, religion and marrying too young, and it traces a crucial period in my early twenties when I broke away from everything I\u2019d been raised to believe. Raised as devout Seventh-day Adventists, who believe that the end of the world is near and premarital sex is a terrible sin, my husband and I married at twenty while still at University. But after leaving the parental nest, we started experimenting with all the things that were forbidden to us \u2013 alcohol, meat, rock and roll, cinema and literature that stretched the boundaries of \u2018decency\u2019. We loved each other sincerely and took our marriage vows very seriously, but part of this experimentation involved having an open marriage. My book is about three weeks at the end of that marriage when I revisited my hometown of Perth and broke the rules of our agreement. It\u2019s a sexual coming of age story, a tale of first love and innocence lost.<\/p>\n

Grab a copy of Rochelle’s new book\u00a0Fallen<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

7. If your work could change one thing in this world \u2013 what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Telling the truth about the variety and detail of female sexual experience is still a radical act \u2013 even in our supposedly liberated and highly sexualised culture. If my book could counter some of the shame around sexual desire, and make readers feel less alone, less dysfunctional, and less \u2018sinful\u2019, then that would be a huge achievement.<\/p>\n

8. Whom do you most admire and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019m full of admiration for the people close to me who are enduring heartbreak, divorce, unemployment and depression. These are the supposedly ordinary people who keep on doing what they have to do, with kindness and generosity, even when getting out bed in the morning feels like the most courageous and impossible act. Life is tough a lot of the time and there\u2019s a lot of everyday heroism. Being human is hard.<\/p>\n

9. Many people\u00a0set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to be as honest as I can be, in both my life and my work. I also want to spread pleasure. There\u2019s really no higher achievement than writing something people enjoy reading for the pure pleasure of the language, the characters and the rich, beautiful world you\u2019ve created. Pleasure should be an end in itself.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Read. Read all the time. Stay off social media long enough to become absorbed in the words of others. Read the great books. Read them aloud. Hear how they work, or don\u2019t work. Read your own work aloud. Feel where it gets boring or sticky. It\u2019s not just that you\u2019re tired of it. The writing is bad when that happens. Good writing is good even when you\u2019ve read it fifty times.<\/p>\n

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

Grab a copy of\u00a0Fallen<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Fallen:\u00a0A Memoir About Sex, Religion and Marrying Too Young
\n<\/em><\/h2>\n

by Rochelle Siemienowicz<\/h3>\n

“Call me Eve. It’s the name I call myself when I think back to that time when I was a young wife – so very young, so very hungry. I picked the fruit and ate and drank until I was drunk with freedom and covered in juice and guilt.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In this frank, compelling and beautifully written memoir, Rochelle Siemienowicz provides an intimate portrait of the last days of an open marriage.<\/p>\n

Raised as devout Seventh-day Adventists, who believe that the end of the world is near and that premarital sex is a terrible sin, Eve and her husband marry young. Rebelling against their upbringing, and in an attempt to overcome problems in their relationship, they enter an agreement that has its own strict rules. But when Eve holidays alone in her hometown of Perth during a hot West Australian summer, she finds her body and heart floating free. Fallen is a true tale of sex, love, religion and getting married too young – and about what it feels like when you can’t keep the promises you once sincerely made.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rochelle Siemienowicz is a writer, film critic and former editor at the AFI | AACTA. She has a PhD in Australian cinema and was the long-time film editor for The Big Issue. She currently reports for Screen Hub, reviews for SBS Film and is Film Columnist for Kill Your Darlings. She very occasionally blogs at It\u2019s Better in the Dark, and is currently working on her first novel, which has nothing at all to do with movies.<\/p>\n

Grab a copy of\u00a0Fallen<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Rochelle Siemienowicz author of\u00a0Fallen 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 Geelong, Victoria, but my family moved so quickly and so often that I have no memory of it. My parents were Seventh-day Adventist missionaries and we lived in various parts of New Guinea and Fiji until I was 14 and then we moved to Perth where I finished High School. I moved to Melbourne to start University in the early 1990s and have been here ever since. 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? Twelve: A schoolteacher because although I really wanted to be a writer I didn\u2019t think it was possible. Eighteen: A journalist because it seemed the likeliest way of making a living as a writer. Or an academic, because I was good at writing essays and this seemed a continuation of that. Thirty: A film journalist and sometime novelist as this combined all my passions \u2013 cinema, literature and connecting with communities of likeminded creative people. 3. What strongly held…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,92],"tags":[1927,4561,5184],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49151"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55861,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49151\/revisions\/55861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}