Simmone Howell

My latest book is notes from the teenage underground

It’s about outsider girls, dodgy boys, underground films, fractured friendships and art, baby.

The best thing about being a writer is dreaming for a living, not having to laugh at the boss’s jokes

If I wasn’t a writer I’d be a high flyer

My first published work was an essay on Romanticism published in the VCE teacher’s guide!

Morning person or night-owl? Aspiring morning person

My first job was babysitting eight prize pekineses on saturday mornings

On a quiz show, my special subject would be LA fiction

My last holiday was to Kent, the garden of England with assorted side trips: to London for high tea with Bloomsbury; to Brighton for a picnic at the pavilion; to Dungeness to see Derek Jarman’s house; and to Hythe for a night at the Imperial – Fancy!

My perfect Saturday is sleeping in, avoiding the phone, coffee, almond croissants, reading the paper, going for a walk, cooking something, watching an old movie, going to sleep

The last CD I bought was Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

I’m currently reading film director jean negulesco’s memoirs, Sara’s Face by Melvin Burgess, The Man of my Dreams by Curtis Sittinfeld and Go, Dog Go! by P.D Eastman

Big Brother or Australian Idol? Um, both

Favourite film/tv show is too hard! Films I can watch again and again include Chinatown, Night of the Hunter, Valley Girl,Ghost World, Foxes, North by Northwest, Gidget, Cockfighter, Midnight Cowboy, The Bad and the Beautiful, Sunset Boulevard…. TV: Six Feet Under, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Veronica Mars,The OC, Sopranos, The Office, Extras

My favourite book is The Goodby People by Gavin Lambert

The book character I would most like to meet is Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe (if only to hear him insult me)

The book character I would least like to meet is Bobby Peru (like the country) from Wild at Heart

The worst thing I’ve ever written is my first attempt at a screenplay. I ignored all advice to ‘write what you know’. It was set in a pool hall and featured an Italian-American thug named Tony. Original? Fuhgeddaboudit …

When I was growing up I wanted to be an adventuress

My heroes are Charles Willeford, Barry Gifford, Pamela Des Barres, Joan Didion, Eve Babitz, Charles and Ray Eames