L. Schick Interview

A couple of weeks ago I read (as mentioned here) and loved Lizard by L Schick.I contacted her immediately to see if she'd like to be interviewed here and I was thrilled that she said yes. And I'm even more thrilled to be able to show you all what she had to say...

Welcome to the blog, Leonore – I’m delighted to have you here.

It's a comfortable blog, I'm delighted to be here, I might stay.

 

I absolutely loved your book, Lizard. Can you tell us a little about it?

Thank-you. This makes me very happy. It is a novella - which by Wikipedia's standards is a story under 50 000 words. It is about a metamorphosis, but never a complete one. 

 

How did it come about?

In the summer holidays in 2004, I decided to read all of Kafka's novels (but I've never read Amerika) and a few of his short stories, so it started there. In literature class, we studied the Trial and I had the idea (specifically in class) of some-one with a disability - and amputated calf - and how they go about with it. I forgot about this and got on with my exams. Two years later I thought of a story about a woman with blue nipples. A couple of month later I puked out the first few thousand words or so of a first draft of Lizard and read it out at a Failed Novelist meeting.

 

How long did it take you to write?

The bulk of the first draft took four months in one block, with a three week hiatus. Then the last bit, and the next few versions, took a year. Then I did intensive editing before sending it off to the Roastbooks competition, with a schedule and help from friends. Once it was into the real-life-proper-editing-process I got really helpful comments and tracked edits from Roastbooks, and we spent time going through it over and over.

 

Of all the creatures in the world, why did you find lizards so appealing and/or right for Eliza’s story?

It came from a curious conviction from the first night of writing Lizard - that all reptiles represented in art were somehow an underhand way of pointing out a "sexual factor," but I've looked this up since, when I went through my lizard-stalking phase, and only found slight confirmation in the direction of regeneration and reproduction, but nothing decisive. Regardless, I still feel that lizards are alien, rarely cute and unappealing, similar to how Eliza sees adults, and an adult version of herself, until she settles at the end. On another note, lizards are also cool because it looks like they have superpowers. I am unsure whether this applies to adults.

 

Who is Leonore Schick?

The person who typed this comma, I think.

 

What would you do if you discovered, one morning, that your calf, like Eliza’s, had become scaly like a lizard’s?

Shake and tremble. Wear thick trousers. Find a payphone or a mobile. Call my parents. Visit their doctors and dermatologists with their French health insurance cards. Paris or Bayonne depending on current location and proximity. 

Eliza acted stupidly.

 

You’re published by Roast Books, can you tell us a little about them?

They are a little publishing company, new, idealistic and realistic at the same time. On top of the information on their website, I can add that they taught me lots through helping me edit Lizard. Faye, the lead Roast booker, gave really clear guidelines but didn't want me to change anything I didn't want to change. I felt totally in control but also really needed their help. They were really honest about which bits were shaky and which bits they liked. It is a very lucky coincidence that I got published, and by them.

 

And a little about your writing process?

Lizard was written on computer, but I'm trying to go back to handwriting because traveling with a laptop is dodgy and tricky. I wrote it in order, writing only what was fun to write. Eliza has quirks and fillers so once I'd found those it was easier to get back to her way of speaking. There were very sharp changes in location and her fillers and attitudes change accordingly. If there's a process, it's write-write-write-write, edit edit edit edit edit. And then I wrote the last chapter, and then edit, edit, edit, edit... I tend to write "fragments" and group them. I wrote a book at school with a friend, and reused the method my friend and I had come up with for that - writing down a skeleton of what will happen in each chapter, and the skeleton is very vague at first, and it is completed when ideas come. Some days are only for the skeleton, some days I spent only looking at etymologies of words but most days were spent writing and once that was done, editing.

 

You’re a member of a writing group, Failed Novelists; can you talk to us about that? Did being a member of that influence your process?

Yes. What is great about our writing group is that there is no teacher or predominant voice - we'll listen to everything and everyone who comes along, and give as much feedback as we can, all together, even if it is the first time. Everyone writes, everyone criticises. We've done some collaborative work, like The Amazing Failed Novel that we printed in book form, and there was a special support group for NaNoWriMo partakers. A non-FNov friend told me people often regret their first publication, but all the feedback and what learnt whilst editing means that I can't. Funnily enough, it's not in a very FNov spirit to say that. The Failed Novelists is basically a support group that encourages writing.

I went to a meeting in the first term of second year of University and by the third term I'd started writing Lizard. I think I'd forgotten that writing was something I did. Being around other people getting excited by a particular word or even a word count really motivated me. Lizard may have been based on a Failed Novelist suggestion, but I may have started writing it before hand and suggested it - I actually cannot remember, and I've asked the others, and they don't know either. As for the process - it gave a deadline - the following Sunday at 2pm. It's nice to turn up with something new. I remember the first few thousand words of Lizard being read out, and a couple of people wanted to hear more - it was really important to feel like I wasn't doing something for nothing. I read out whole chapters on a Failed Novelists' retreat week and got helpful feedback. And then when it came around to editing it before sending it to the Roastbooks competition, I made a communal FNov email, like a virtual support group, and they'd help me tweak bits and told me which bits were unclear. 

I was told about the competition by Selena, a sort of FNov founder. It's pretty safe to say that Lizard wouldn't have been written, let alone published, if the Oxford Art Movement stall (that I was manning) hadn't been the Failed Novelist's neighbour at the Fresher's fair at the beginning of my second year. 

 

Did you have a reader in mind when you wrote Lizard. If you did, what do they look like?

It varied, but the first person who read it was my sister, and when she did, I felt like it had been published. This makes me think I wrote it for her.

 

Which authors do you admire the most?

This is tough. I'm not sure what admiration entails. I know loads of writers from Failed Novelists, many of them are amazing. I'm just reeling out of a Coetzee phase - I like how he doesn't need a plot because his style is so perfect. Some of my favourite books used to be the Just William series, but I don't know if I admired the author. I like Angela Carter's Wise Children, and most of Kafka.

 

What advice would you give to any, so far, unpublished writers reading this?

From the one thing I've had published I'd say, join a writing group and/or keep an eye out for competitions, they are often put in literary magazines, but are also all over the internet. 

 

Tell us a secret.

My sisters and I used to have this doll called Micheline, she had red hair like Eliza, and she was really chubby. She would giggle and sometimes she'd say, "can I tell you a secret? My favourite ice-cream is strawberry." According to Micheline, that qualifies as "a secret". 

Thus.

Here is my secret:

My favourite ice-cream is not strawberry flavour.

 

When you’re not writing, where are you most likely to be found?

I'm very hard to find. I am without a fixed home - not exactly homeless, but I haven't lived anywhere for more than three weeks, maximum, since I finished University in June. But I like films and music and graphic novels.

What’s next for you?

I wish I knew.

Anything you’d like to add?

Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you for letting me write my first ever interview, ever, in my life, it has been tricky and fun.

 

L. Schick: DOB, January 1988 / British citizen / POB, Paris - I've lived in Kent and Paris and Oxford and Belgium, I'm a film junky and in my second year of trying to learn to play the guitar. I've just finished University, so I'm B.A for now.

***

Thanks so much for coming on, Leonore, and for such interesting answers. You have been a wonderful guest. I'm looking forward to reading whatever you publish next.

Another Addition To The Incredibles

Dear Everybody, by Michael Kimball is definitely up there in my all time favourites list. It is incredibly good. Wow. Read it.

***

And if you should so desire, you can read what Mr Kimball had to say to the excellent Kay Sexton here.

A Great Little Read

I decided to read Lizard, by L. Schick (her debut) after reading what Scott Pack and Caroline Smailes had to say about it, (especially about it apparently winking towards Kafka) and I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In short, it's about a young girl, Eliza Young, who discovers one day that her leg has developed scales, yes, the sort lizards have. She goes to work as an au pair for a family on a sunny island where she come across a lizard civilisation. The story is about Eliza's struggle to understand and cope with her new leg, this new civilisation and, ultimately, herself.

Now, as a novella, it isn't perfect. It is, in parts, a little confusing - but I must say that I think that's a big part of its charm in that it reflects Eliza's own confusion - so it's a small critisism. What I liked most about it though was the voice: new, fresh, intelligent, convincing and not at all self conscious. And it's fun.

In short: I loved it, and I'd have happily spent a good deal more time in the company of Eliza. (I gave it 5 stars over at http://www.goodreads.com/.)

I think L Schick is definitely one to watch and I'm excited to read more of her stuff.

I'm Going To See All Your City Lights

It would have been Joe Strummer's birthday today. I once shook his hand, you know.

Not Funny Ha Ha

It's been a funny few days, and not the sort of funny that makes a person laugh. A couple of, shall we say, crappy things have happened which, though they've been utterly non-writing related, have knocked me sideways to a point where precious little writing has been done. And that's frustrated me because I've wanted to get lots of writing done. Grumble, grumble. But the number of lovely people who've been lovely to me far outnumbers those who aren't so great and haven't been so nice, which I suppose is something. Thank you, lovely people.

But have I been sat at home being sad and grumpy? Not all the time, no. I have started jogging. Not very far. And aching limbs (and probably looking like the least likely jogger in the world) aside it's been fun and a relief - it's been well over a year since I'd been able to do anything like that level of physical activity due to a nasty infection I had * which has taken, clearly, an age to get over.

I have also been doing a fair amount of reading - more on that soon because one of the books I've read I want to dedicate a post to because I loved it. THIS is for the more curious among you.

Right. I am going to try to write something now. Wish me luck.

*and no, the 'beloved' as mentioned in that post in not my beloved any longer. Nice to be reminded of what was. Hmm. 

Tim Atkinson Virtual Tour

It's my turn, and pleasure, to be the host of today's leg of Tim Atkinson's virtual tour.

So, Writing Therapy, who’s it for and what’s it about?

Writing Therapy explores the use of language and the way it helps to shape both memory and experience. There’s something in it for almost everyone – authors, teenagers, readers looking for something just a little bit different – the lot. It explores the relationship between fiction and reality, and the extent to which we’re all the authors of our destiny.

On a narrative level it’s about a girl who’s read so many novels she becomes convinced that she’s a character in one. So it’s a book within a book, two books for the price of one! And that’s part of the fun. Because – just as many writing courses refer to great works of literature, so does the central character. She takes her cue from the books she’s read and – in taking them apart – constructs a novel of her own.

But Frances Nolan is a patient in a psychiatric hospital, too. So writing a book is her therapy as well. Her nurse takes the role of tutor, I suppose: feeding her exercises, getting her creative juices flowing and developing her writing.

 

 

Why did you write it?

Two things got me started: one, teenage mental illness and the stigma attached. A book in with a protagonist who struggles with depression and triumphs (writing a novel) might help someone, somewhere (so I thought). 10% of the book’s royalties are going to the charity Young Minds (www.youngminds.org.uk) though, so someone’s benefitting. Second, the way we all (especially bloggers, twitterers and so on) make fiction of our lives, if only in the editing. Where does fact end and fiction begin? That’s the central question in Writing Therapy.

 

A third element – which emerged powerfully as I started writing - was a desire to do something different. What’s the point of writing something someone else might easily have written (and written better)? Rightly or wrongly, I really wanted to do something just that little bit different. A book within a book, a book about how books get written, meta-fiction, seemed an ideal vehicle for taking things apart and putting them together in a slightly different way.

 

What do you hope readers will get from it?

Judging by the responses I’ve been getting, the book seems to work on at least three different levels. I’m fascinated by the way we all, to some extent, actively create the story of our own lives, shaping both the outside world’s and our own view of ourselves. That’s a theme I wanted to examine closely. Authors have referred to it as a ‘self-help book for writers cunningly disguised as an innocent novel’, while to a teenage audience it deals, as Richard Coles puts it, with ‘growing up and breaking down’ and offers some insights into teenage mental illness. In this respect the book deals with issues I’d experienced first-hand as a teacher. In one of my roles I was responsible for pupil welfare and I was seeing a rise each year in the number of pupils suffering mental and emotional trauma. Young Minds exists specifically to support young people suffering from mental health-related problems. It also supports parents and other adults involved in the care of such young people. As a teacher I’d found Young Minds invaluable; as a writer I’m keen to do anything I can to help.

 

How long did it take you to write?

Writing Therapy too the best part of five years from first ideas to completed manuscript. It was very stop-start at the beginning, because I knew what I wanted to do but didn’t have the confidence or skill to see it through. I actually signed up for a Creative Writing course with the OU mid-way through the novel. That helped enormously.

 

Did you use a fountain pen to write it?

Almost everything was written either direct onto computer or else in pencil on a plain white sheet of paper. Being left-handed I find fountain-pens very hard to use, although I do own a very fine (and under-used) Mont Blanc!

Tell us something about you.

I cut my teeth writing for the Yorkshire Post as a contributor on the old 'This World of Ours' column. I’ve also written stuff for ‘The Dalesman’ and ‘Railway Modeller’ magazines, and the Times Educational Supplement.

I was a teacher for over twenty years, teaching RE, history and geography in secondary schools in the north of England. For the last five years I was Assistant Headteacher at Boston Grammar School, Lincolnshire. I left in July 2008 to be a stay-at-home dad to my young son, Charlie, and to write full-time. My progress changing nappies and keeping a toddler entertained is being recorded on the blog, http://bringingupcharlie.blogspot.com.

What's next for you?

I’ve recently completed a two-book commission for Wayland (part of the Hachette children’s group) as part of their ‘Countries of the World’ series. I’ve written their titles on India and the UK, both published next year.

Two further novels – Marriage Guidance, and Set in Stone – are slowly nearing completion. The former follows a group of thirty-something’s on the threshold of tying the knot adjusting to the demands of monogamy in the twenty-first century; the latter is a book for young adult readers and concerns a boy-runaway, searching for his family.

Future plans include a senior school philosophy manual, and a book revealing the pagan origins of many Christian festivals and rituals. 

Anything you'd like to add?

Only my thanks, Nik, for hosting this leg of the blog book-tour!

 

 

Words

Thanks to Cally for putting me on to these peeps. Love this song. If I wasn't made of sterner stuff I reckon the words could just break my heart. Lucky I'm a tough old fella, isn't it?

You Know When Something's Obviously Wrong

... when someone makes a film about it and it doesn't need explanation. (I didn't even need to say that, did I?)

(Thanks to MeandmyBigMouth for bringing it to my attention.)

***

I've done pretty much nothing today, and it's felt good.

Links to Things I Agree With

The ever lovely and clever Caroline Smailes talking about Twitter here.

The also lovely and talented Annie Clarkson talking about Waterstone's and short fiction here.

And the also, also lovely and talented Sara Crowley, taking about Olive Kitteridge here. (I think this is my favourite because she says I'm right.)

***

And did anyone else stay up late to watch the shooting starts over the past couple of nights? I did. Last night. And what I saw, while not spectacular, was pretty special and rather lovely. Seeing the unnusual's brilliant, I reckon.

Me, reading

Nik Perring, reading from Nik Perring on Vimeo.

I met Paul and Claire last night (they are a seriously good team) to have a look at and edit (or watch them edit) the video Claire shot of the launch night of the photo book back in May. Thank you both, very much.

And here's me reading my contribution to the book (a piece of flash fiction inspired by the projected photograph).

Metamorpho/My Journey/Me Me Me

Not this one.

I've been thinking a great deal over the past few weeks how things change(d). Really, selfishly, specifically about how much I've changed over the past few years. So I thought I'd share.

When I started out writing, many years ago, I wanted to be a decent freelance journalist. And I did ok at that. But then I started writing fiction and fell in love with it, despite - and I think this is important - not having a bloody clue what I was doing. I wrote horror at the beginning. Odd things. An awful, awful, AWFUL novel about cloning Jesus (it's true and if writing it hadn't made me a better writer I'd almost be ashamed of it). Then I discovered children's literature. And I think it was at that point that my writing changed. It got better. Actually it got good. And I was starting to be published regularly.  I think that editors were prepared to put their name to what I'd produced, that they felt it was good enough, was a hugely important thing for me. That validation gave me confidence.

And then I wrote a children's book, which was published. I was an author at last. It was then that I started blogging and running workshops - doing different things. Living as a writer, or at least pretending to. I toured the book, met readers. Got to talk about writing to people who were interested in it. I was asked to start a writing group (which is still going). I grew a beard. (Actually the beard growing was an accident: I'd finished an exhausting stint of appearances and, once I'd finished I got back to writing and simply didn't shave and one day discovered I had a beard.)

The next stage, I think, could well be the most important one, and it provided me with a realisation. 

I read Aimee Bender's Wilful Creatures and I discovered Etgar Keret; both of whom I instantly fell in love with (possibly, as friends might tell you, quite literally in Aimee's case!). And it was being exposed to these writers (and others), to short stories that made me realise that it was the short form that I loved, and that I naturally leaned towards, even in the longer things I'd written. Everything, structurally, seemed to be short story in shape.

So I gave up on the novel I'd been working on and decided to just write short things for a while. And as soon as I'd done this I remember saying to one of my best friends in writing that it felt like I'd come home. I was comfortable (in a good, not a lazy or complacent, way) and I was having fun. Things fitted. It was all terribly hard work and frustrating (par for the writing course) and rejection filled (par again) but it felt right and natural and, well, good and soon the successes started to come (though not enough and not as quickly as I'd like - so it goes). Also, I think it meant that I understood my writing better, which has helped.

And do you know what occurred to me earlier? In all that time, from pretty much before the blog was born, I've not had a rest.

It's a strange thing looking back at that cocky twenty-two year old greenhorn, with his clean shaven face and bags of energy and confidence, now I'm older and tired and striving to be good as opposed to be published (as I said over at the lovely Caroline Smailes' blog: I think that writing good stuff will lead to publication anyway and being published is really important to me). And it's strange to see how much has changed, in my approach to writing, the hours I keep - and personally, in the relationship I lost, the friends I fell out with, the new ones I've made, how much I've achieved and how much I've missed. And, more importantly, how much I've learned.

But that's me. This is what I do. And, as hard as it is, I love it.

I do need a break though. It's just that there's so much exciting stuff to do.

Caroline Rance Interview

Time for a chat with an author of historical fiction I reckon. Welcome, Caroline Rance, author of Kill-Grief.

 

Hello and welcome, Caroline. Would you like to tell us a bit about the book?

Hi Nik, thanks for inviting me onto your blog. My book is called Kill-Grief and is set in the hard-drinking world of a 1750s hospital. It's about a woman who reluctantly becomes a nurse in an attempt to carve an independent future for herself, but she soon finds her past catching up with her. It's quite dark and a bit gruesome in places, but it also has positive themes of determination and survival.

 

‘Kill-Grief’s’ one heck of a title. Can you tell us how it came about?

'Kill-Grief' is one of many 18th-century slang words for gin, and in the book the main character, Mary, has a constant battle with drink. She uses it as a means of escaping from the horrors of hospital life and trying to blot out the secrets she carries, but it increasingly puts her in danger.

When I started writing the book, gin was only going to have a minor role, but it ended up almost becoming a character in its own right. For a while I thought about using another of its nicknames – Sky Blue – as the title, because there's also a piece of blue silk that crops up in the story, but I decided it was too wishy-washy. Kill-Grief is darker and more atmospheric, and hopefully warns the reader to expect a bit of blood!

 

Your story’s set in Chester in the middle of the eighteenth century. What kind of place was it then? And what was the most interesting thing you discovered during your research?

Chester was becoming quite an upmarket centre for luxury goods, but like other cities at that time, there was a lack of sanitation and extremes of poverty and wealth. In the book, I portray it as muddy, smelly and noisy - a real contrast to the quiet coastal village that Mary comes from. Compared with London, however, Chester was thought to be a healthy place to live because the Rows (raised walkways in front of the shops) allowed people to keep out of the grime and rain. There were smart new houses being built and social improvements like the new hospital, but the city gaol was one of the least humane prisons in the country. The gaol scenes in the book are actually toned down, because the reality was even worse. One of the most interesting things I found out was that there was a cell called 'Little Ease' that was only 4'6” high and 17 inches wide. Yikes!

 

What do you make of medicine in the 1700s?

The lack of anaesthesia and poor understanding of infection severely limited medicine and surgery, but hindsight makes it too easy to see it as barbaric. The doctors and surgeons of the time set out to cure, not to be cruel, but although it was a period of scientific breakthrough, tradition still stood in the way of progress. Blood-letting, for example, sounds frightening, but it was often the patients themselves who insisted on it because it was an old, familiar practice that made them feel something was being done.

Those who couldn't afford doctors (or didn't trust them) relied on folk remedies or quack nostrums, or just had to put up with their condition. One of the patients at the early Chester Infirmary had been suffering from a leg ulcer for 36 years! Until the hospital was established, there was not much he could do about it.

 

And of hospitals then?

Lots of new hospitals were being set up by the great and the good, who wanted to help (and keep an eye on) the poor. With large numbers of patients crammed in, no toilets and no infection control, they were pretty grotty and there was a huge risk of hospital gangrene and infectious diseases such as smallpox, but those who ran them had the best of intentions and genuinely wanted to improve society.

Patients often ended up spending months there, because it took so long for them either to get better or give up and take their chances at home. Not many people died in the smaller hospitals, though, because if anyone was on their last legs it wasn't worth wasting a bed on them in the first place!

The nurses had no training and were effectively just servants mopping up the various bodily functions. They had a terrible reputation as slatternly drunks, but even before the reforms of the 19^th century, there were a few hard-working and heroic ones.

 

How long did it take you to write? What’s your writing process?

I started writing it about 10 years ago, but the attempt stalled because although I'd done quite a lot of research and got to know the characters, I didn't have a plot. It was only in 2004 that I came back to the setting, with a new point-of-view character, stronger themes and more mystery, that I got on with writing it properly. It took about three years from there.

My writing process is a bit hit and miss. I just wing it, really. Getting a first draft down is the hardest part – then I can go back and craft the story more carefully, cutting out the unnecessary stuff and adding lots of foreshadowing and 'hooks' once I know what I'm actually supposed to be foreshadowing.

 

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to write historical novels?

Just give it a go! Don't be daunted by the thought of research – you probably know more than you think, and some general reading is enough to get you started. You can go into more depth once you've worked out what you need. Don't put the history before the story – it's about the characters and what happens to them, not about all the cool stuff you found out. Accuracy is important but in the end you are writing for a modern audience, not a historical one, so being convincing is more essential than being right. The dialogue in particular requires sleight of hand – readers are not going to plough through perfectly rendered 18th-century Cheshire dialect (or whatever), but they don't want it to be jarringly modern either.

 

What’s the most difficult aspect of writing about the past?

The sense of being caught between the past and present, and not feeling that I belong properly in either.

 

What’s the biggest difference between 1756 and 2009?

Life is always precarious, but in 1756 it was even more ephemeral. A cold or a cut finger could be the end of you. There were many more people on the edges of society who could disappear from view without a single person noticing or caring that they had gone. Society as a whole did not seem to value individual life as much as it does now.

 

Tell us something about you.

I have a bad habit of being really keen to do interviews and then taking an embarrassingly long time to send the answers back... but you already knew that!

 

Who would you most like to like Kill-Grief?

Sarah Waters. I love her combination of excellent writing and careful plotting, especially in her Victorian novels. And she seems really nice in interviews.

 

How does being an author feel?

It's great! Being published gives a sense of validation to the years spent self-indulgently tapping away at a computer. It's quite funny how impressed people are – they are always saying “Aren't you clever?” and I think “well, I'm no cleverer now than I was when I was just a mum.” I love doing all the authorly stuff like book signings and readings, and I get recognised in the Co-op sometimes. (I'm the only author in the village.)

 

What’s next for you?

I'm about half way through another historical novel, currently going by the title For the Love of Freaks, which is set in 1850s Liverpool and London. I also want to write a non-fiction book about the quack remedies advertised in 19th-century newspapers. I already blog on the subject but haven't properly planned the book yet... I will get round to it one day.

 

Anything you’d like to add?

A huge thank you for interviewing me! And can I plug my next book signing? It's at Borders, Cheshire Oaks on Sat 15 August from 1pm, so it would be lovely to see anyone who happens to be passing by.

 

**

Caroline Rance grew up on the Wirral and now lives in the land of red kites in the Chilterns. She is a part-time editor, mum to a two-year-old and the owner of an aged Staffie and three horses. Caroline blogs atwritingandallthat.wordpress.com and quackdoctor.wordpress.com and is on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/quackwriter . She is also a member of the Strictly Writing team atstrictlywriting.blogspot.com

Music

How's about a bit of music? I've been listening to The Indelicates a lot of late (probably because they're really good - and fresh). They've also just realeased a poetry collection which you can buy here. And keep your eyes peeled for an interview with them in the not too distant future. I know, I spoil you, I really do.

***

And a thank you:

As a lot of you will know these past few months have been, in places, really difficult for me. One thing happened and everything changed, and that's a lot to cope and/or deal with even if you're not a super-sensitive person like me. But miserable times have been made better by a handful of extremely lovely and caring people. You know who you are, and I wanted to say thank you because you've really made a difference. So, um, thanks folks!

And I must say that things feel like they're starting to look up. 

The future? Bring it on!

Nuala Ní Chonchúir Interview

Last week I read Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s Nude, and I really enjoyed it – more than I thought I would to be honest. It’s a collection of short stories about art, nakedness and, well, sex (of sorts), and not the thing I’d normally go for. But I loved it, loved that the stories are stories in their own right and very, very good at that. It’s great being exposed to new things and finding out that I really like them.

 

And  it’s with great pleasure that I welcome Nude’s author, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, to my place to answer some questions...

 

 

Welcome to the blog, Nuala. Can you start by telling us a little about your latest collection of short stories, Nude?

Thanks Nik, I’m delighted to be here. Nude is so-called because each of the stories features an unclothed body, mostly in the world of art but sometimes as a lover. The stories are set in Ireland but also Paris, England, Austria, India, Spain...I like to travel as I write; writing about exotic locations keeps me interested.

 

Who is it for? Do you have an audience or reader in mind?

I never have an audience in mind, no ‘ideal reader’ but I hope readers of contemporary literary fiction will like it. Also art lovers and artists. If all the people who loved Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring bought and read it that would be cool too – I just know they’d enjoy it!!

 

And a little about you. Who is Nuala Ní Chonchúir (and what a terrific name)?

I’m a full time writer and mother of three – I went full time five years ago and it has paid off in terms of successes with publishing and in lit comps, if not in financial terms. Yet. All of my jobs before writing all the time involved books: bookseller, translator, library assistant, arts administrator in a Writers’ Centre etc. It is practically impossible to live off writing; I earn shockingly little. Luckily my fiancé has a job and he supports us.

My unpronounceable surname is the Irish for ‘O’Connor’. I was educated in Irish language schools and just kept the Irish form of my name afterwards.

 

Many of the stories in Nude are about art. How do you think literature and art dovetail?

They can feed off each other; one art form inspires the other. I have met so many writers who also paint; lots of my writer friends love art galleries and are obsessive about visual art. Creativity is like a personality trait – invariably the people who thrived in English class at school also loved art class. I’m fascinated by any type of creativity – I think people who can write good songs, for example, are amazing; I always wonder how they do that.

 

Many of the stories also deal with desire and temptation. Do you think that the temptation of sex is temptation in its purest form?

Oh God, I don’t know! What about food? Isn’t food more of a temptation because we actually need it? Do we really need sex? Some people manage celibacy. Am I changing the subject?! I guess many of the characters in Nude give in to temptation, not truly analysing the consequences for them or others. That’s the beauty of fiction – you can make your characters do crazy things without any danger to yourself.

 

What’s the difference between nakedness and nudity?

Nudity as we consider it in Western society is a posturing thing. John Berger gave me permission to use a quote from his fabulous book Ways of Seeing, to preface the stories: ‘Nudity is a form of dress’. I was really struck by that.

The narrator in the story ‘As I Look’ in Nude has the following to say on the subject: “Naked and nude are two different things, you know. Naked means unprotected or bare, stripped or destitute. Nude means unclothed, or being without the usual coverings. Think about it. There are a lot of nude ladies in this gallery, but are they really naked? I mean, are they actually naked, as opposed to nude? Being nude is a beautiful thing (supposedly), but to be naked is to be exposed.”

 

Is a picture worth a thousand words?

It can be. Artists can say so much in a painting, a lot that we won’t necessarily understand as viewers. It’s like dropping a secret reference into a story; it makes you smile to know it’s there but most people won’t even notice it, though you would hope that someone might. I’m sure it’s like that for visual artists too – they will reference painters they admire, incidents from their lives etc but maybe all we see is a picture of a landscape and its beauty.

 

A couple of the stories in Nude are set in the past; how do you think attitudes to sex and the body have changed over the years?

Levels of prudishness change with the generations. We’re still repressed in Ireland. Even now we are in the grips of the hangover from all that the Church, in collusion with the State, did wrong. Freely expressed sexuality is not a norm in Ireland. Edna O’Brien’s book The Country Girls, which is such an innocent read, was banned in the sixties because the female characters had sex outside marriage.

Ireland shot forward very quickly recently in an attempt to catch up with the modern world – it’s left people confused about expressing their sexuality. We’re still a bit gobsmacked by permissiveness, I reckon. That’s to do with a type of Catholic conservatism that I, and many of my peers, object to.

Some people – like my Ma – are a bit scandalised by how much I write about sexual matters. I think she hopes it’s just a phase!

 

What do you find difficult when writing about sex?

The actual description of it – I end up repeating a lot of the same words and phrases in different stories, then I have to go back and change them. I keep it brief and suggestive, rather than explicit. A lot of my stories are 1^st person POV, so it’s usually about how one person is feeling as opposed to descriptions of the ‘mechanics’! It’s hard to write about sex – no doubt about it!

 

And writing about art in fiction?

I just love it; I find it so easy to get an idea for a story or poem from visual art. I love paintings and sculpture; I’m interested in the whole process of making art, from inspiration to models to artist. I try to explore that in the stories in Nude, looking at the making of art from different angles. One of them is even from the POV of the figure in the painting. (‘Roy Lichtenstein’s Nudes in a Mirror: We Are Not Fake!’)

 

What’s your writing process?

I forget! I’ve just had a baby (10 weeks ago) and I’m not really writing at all, I’m spread too thin. I’ve sort of edited three half-written poems into existence since she’s been born and kept my blog and made a few notes for the only story I have on the go – the same one since March. (March!)

I think the process changes as your life evolves. I used to be very prolific but I’ve slowed down enormously in recent years. That’s why I founded a Peer Group in January of fifteen professional writers. We meet once a month and workshop our work – they are all brilliant and I need that group to keep me producing.

The good thing is that the work I wrote when I was writing a lot is now being published so I am doing plenty of readings and promotional stuff. I’ll get back to writing more at some point soon, I hope.

 

What’s wrong with most art nowadays?

Gosh, it would be hard to generalise, there is so much art being produced. Maybe, like books, there is too much samey, lowest-common denominator art out there. That cheapens it.

 

How does Nude compare with your other work?

I think it’s pretty similar in style and I’ve written about art before, but I hope it’s better work. Writing is a never-ending apprenticeship and I learn new things about it every year. Hopefully that brings improvements to my writing.

 

You’re a poet as well as a short story writer. Which comes more naturally to you and why?

I’ve been writing poetry longer but I’m more passionate about fiction, especially short fiction. Stories are harder to write than poems – harder to get right – but they are my preferred form.

 

What is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?

My two sons’ welcoming smiles for their new baby sister.

In art, Manet’s painting ‘Olympia’.

 

What’s next for you?

A virtual tour and several launches for Nude; publication of a poetry pamphlet of 24 poems from Templar in October and hopefully a full collection with them next year. And something exciting that I’m not allowed talk about yet.

 

Anything you’d like to add?

Just a big thank you, Nik, for having me round at yours – I always enjoy your interviews and I’m delighted to be the interviewee. And I wish you well with all of your writing – may your ink flow!

Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in County Galway, Ireland. Her third short fiction collection Nude will be published by Salt in September 2009. She has poems and an essay in The Watchful Heart – A New Generation of Irish Poets, edited by Joan McBreen (Salmon, 2009). Nuala was chosen by The Irish Times as a writer to watch in 2009; she has won many short fiction prizes including the Cúirt New Writing Prize, RTÉ radio’s Francis MacManus Award, the inaugural Jonathan Swift Award and the Cecil Day Lewis Award.

She was recently shortlisted for the European Prize for Literature and she was one of four winners of the Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection competition. Her pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car will be published in October. Website:www.nualanichonchuir.com