residence
The good thing about finishing Night Beach is that I now get to do all that reading I’ve been missing out on. I’m thinking I’ll kick things off with a Stephen King binge. Anyone out there not familiar with Mr King? For those who are, do you have a favourite King story? I say story, because of course there are the books, but then there are all those movies based on his work, as well.
Do you like that title? I thought I'd better make it punchy, because as your Writer-In-Residence I'm reporting to you live from the festival itself. It's been overcast all day, but the sun's finally broken through the clouds, just in time to turn the harbour to gold while it sets. And I'm sitting in between two of the piers, watching the boats and ferries pass.
Hey, Happy Friday! One question I've been asked a couple of times is whether or not I listen to music while I write. Yes, is the answer, but my method is a bit weird. On the odd chance that the story is going well and I'm in the zone, I can have anything playing - my entire Itunes catalogue, one song after the next. But that only happens about one day in every ten.
For the other nine days, when my story isn't going well, and I'm having trouble getting into it, I use music as a shortcut.
I thought I'd take a break from book talk and proceed straight to gossip (well, kind of). I went to the opening party of the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Tuesday night. Now that is definitely not the sort of sentence that rolls off my tongue very often. I mean, I like being social, but only in moderation. And after surfing and writing and visiting schools and bringing up two small maniacs, there’s not much time left to be social anyway. I used to be very social, but then I discovered that I quite like being alone. Which is a useful trait to have if you want to write. For me, anyways.
Let’s talk about covers. One thing I'll never be immune to is the moment when you first see the cover for your new book. It’s so weird, wild and wonderful to see someone else’s snapshot of the story, and what they think needs to be communicated to the reader.
Raw Blue just got a new cover because it’s coming out in the UK in August (so in summer over there). This is what it looks like:
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I had a magical moment in a bookstore this week. It happened in Taree - I was up there to do an Author Talk at the Taree Library. For anyone who hasn’t been there, Taree is on the Mid North NSW coast. It’s right on the Manning River (see snap#1), and it’s only a short drive away from Saltwater Point (snap#2) – which was a bonus for me, because I hadn’t surfed Saltwater before.
I’ve just finished a long short story. How’s that for an oxymoron? It’s about 14,000 words, and I was going to use it as an example of how I write. But I would have felt like a fraud. The problem with going on about how you did something is that you’re only focusing on the part where you were productive. What that doesn’t cover is how much time you spent actively avoiding doing anything; how much time you spent doubting what you were doing; and how much time you spent going over what you’d already done, rather than pushing forward and finishing it.
How’s your weekend been? I’ve been up at my dad’s place, which is near Woodford in Queensland – home to the Woodford Folk Festival and, for the last two years, Splendour in the Grass - before Byron snatched it back. The view from up there is spectacular, featuring the Glass House mountains and stretching all the way to the sea. At night you can add in the glittering strip of lights from Caloundra to Brisbane. Last night, the full moon was in the mix, too. Look, I captured it for you - not very well, admittedly, but hey, I did my best :)
An aside before I get down to business. Jimmy Lewis sent me this photo. It's the first time I've seen Night Beach in the wild. (Hardcore Saltwater Vampires fans might recognise Jimmy Lewis as being Audiocommand's drummer. It's nice that he took time out from his busy touring schedule to go into a bookstore and snap the book.)
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Okay, enough asiding (I was born to zigzag).
Why do I write? There are three reasons, and I'm only going into the first one today, not least because it neatly ties into what you'll have to do if you want to join in the GIVEAWAY.
It’s hard beginning something. No matter how much writing I do, I always struggle when faced with that first blank page (and all the blank pages after that, come to think of it). But in any story there are a couple of questions that need to be answered. The who, when, where, what and why of it all. And the way I usually get going is by attempting to answer at least one of those.
So let’s start with the who. I’m Kirsty Eagar, and I’ve just been handed the Writer-in-Residence torch by Michelle Cooper. It’s kind of like being handed the Olympic torch, except I didn’t actually get to meet Michelle (although I did heed her warnings about the quirky commenting system), and I’m not wearing any Lycra.
