Julia Lawrinson

What’s your latest book?

I’ve got two Young Adult novels out in 2006 – Suburban Freak Show and Bye, Beautiful.

What’re they about?

Suburban Freak Show is a comedy about uni life, environmentalism and Danish girls in cotton lycra tops.  Bye, Beautiful is set in 1966 in the WA wheatbelt, and is about sisters Marianne and Sandy, and a good-looking part-Aboriginal boy called Billy.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

The fact one’s work wardrobe includes tracksuit pants and Chesty Bonds.

What’s the biggest frustration?

That you can never produce the book in your head: all writing is a noble attempt to achieve this impossible aim. Nathaniel Hawthorne describes this best in The Custom House, his foreword to The Scarlet Letter – it’s too long to quote here, but it describes every writer’s despair at the perfection that can never be achieved once the book you imagine arrives on paper.

How long have you been writing and how did it all start?

I’ve been practicing since I was nine, and did a couple of creative writing units at university in my early twenties.  I started to write ‘seriously’ at 28, after I developed rheumatoid arthritis and realised that if I didn’t get going, my fingers might seize up before I dared to try the impossible (ie, write a novel).  Fortunately the drugs are now working, because I’m a word- and story-addict and have no intention of stopping between now and the grave.

What are you reading?

I’ve just finished the best book in the world, Steinbeck’s East of Eden.  I’m also reading Fullilove’s compilation Men and Women of Australia: Our Greatest Modern Speeches for my day job as a speechwriter.  It doesn’t quite have Steinbeck’s reach and depth but does contain some stirring moments – and a few great insults.  Parliamentarian James Killen, for example, responded to Billy Hughes’ claim, ‘I am my own worst enemy’ with ‘Not while I’m around.’ 

How did you spend your teenage years?

Um, after leaving school at 15 I alternated between jobs such as roadhouse waitress, candy bar attendant, whopper maker and checkout chick; hitchhiked a fair bit; put in time in a couple of psych hospitals; became a born again Christian.  Great background for a writer.

What was your favourite book as a teenager?

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  I still recite bits of it in times of stress, especially the speeches of Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Your desert island book?

Elizabeth Knox’s The Vintner’s Luck.

Desert island disc?

Abba Gold, without a doubt.

Who are your heroes?

My German teacher Frauke Chambers, who has boundless curiosity about everything; John Lennon, who remained open to everything in spite of, and Gough, for obvious reasons.

What might people be surprised to know about you?

I was gonged on Hey Hey It’s Saturday whilst wearing a pink lame dress and a sequined cap.