I was one of those children who really didn't discriminate too much about what I was reading. As long as it was words, I read it. My early childhood was dominated by English women - I adored Joan Aiken, Antonia Forest and Noel Straetfield especially. I loved books about families - I wouldn't be able to count the number of times I read Seven Little Australians and Little Women.
As I got older, I pulled things from my mother's bookshelf and read them in my room with the door closed. I felt so sophisticated. She read a lot of feminist fiction and also lots of fantasy and sci-fi - the Thomas Covenant chronicles stick in my mind, although I rarely read anything like that anymore. I also read a lot that she didn't approve of, like Flowers in the Attic. She was horrified, but she still let me buy them.
My mother was a teacher, and one year she read The Bridge to Terabithia to her class. She was captivated by it, and talked about it all the time. I clearly remember the night she had finished reading it to the class and brought it home for me to read. I read it without stopping, and sobbed for hours afterwards. It is, without doubt, my single favourite book. I still have Mum's copy with her name written in the front, and If I ever need a cathartic moment, I go to it, and it never fails to weave its magic on me.
Would you say your childhood and teenage reading has had a distinct influence on how you write fiction now, and why?
I don't know that anything in particular has had an influence, but I think I write because it lets me take what I love about reading a step further. There is some sort of physical sensation that I get as I enter the other world and the other lives of people in stories. Every time I sit down and write, that's the feeling I'm looking for.
What did you do before you became a published novelist, and how did you come to write your first novel and get it published?
I started writing Black Dust Dancing when I first had children. It was a good chance to take myself more seriously as a writer, because it felt like I could still keep it a secret. When people asked, 'What do you do?' it was easy to hide behind the facade of 'I just stay at home with the kids'. I entered an unpublished manuscript competition. I didn't win, but eventually the manuscript was accepted for publication.
How would you describe your style of fiction or your approach to writing fiction?
Until recently, I would say that my style has been a little melancholy, a little black, but maybe that's only because I've been through a few sad and melancholy years. I really don't know how I'd describe my style - every time I hear someone say, 'that was very...' I'm always taken by surprise. I don't know that I've ever put much thought into my style. I think it's the one thing I trust will take care of itself.
Is your first published novel standalone or part of a series, and what advantages or disadvantages does this present for you?
It is standalone, but I always had this idea that all of the people I wrote about would have some kind of connection to each other. Not in any major way, but I'd like each piece of fiction I write to have a character who was in a different piece, even if it's only in a minor role or even if I'm the only one who knows it.
I sometimes think about writing a series, and I have two planned - one for adults and one for children. I watch my children churn through series, and I remember how much I enjoyed series - reading them, lining them up against each other - and I think I'd like to be part of that world again.
Have you found writing your second novel easier or more challenging than writing your first novel and why?
I've had several moments, espeically to do with plotting and narrative pace, where I’ve realised just how much I’ve learnt. Every now and and then I’ll realise that I’m just doing what I did the first time, and it was a mistake the first time and will be a mistake this time too. For example, I wrote thousands and thousands of words last time just to get a word count. I don’t do that anymore. I’m still obsessed by word counts, but I make sure I begin each writing session with a more productive purpose and direction than simply, ‘write more words’. In that sense, it’s been a much faster process.
On the other hand, I’m still wracked by doubt and mired in procrastinatory habits, so that hasn’t changed at all.
Who is another novelist whose fiction writing you admire and why?
So many, but Jenny Diski is my current favourite. In the last few years I've read all her fiction and all her non-fiction and a lot of it I've re-read (and some of that more than once). She has this way of being cynical and biting, but at the same time warm and generous, and sometimes she is just hilarious. I often think that if my mother had had the chance to be a writer, this is the way she would have written.
Some of her stuff is pretty confronting, but I always finish her work feeling better about the world than I did before I started.
How would you summarise your debut novel in one paragraph?
Given the current discussions about women writers and women's writing, I'd have to say it's definitely one of those 'domestic' novels under such heated debate at the moment. It's about all sorts of things, but one of the things I actively wanted it to be (as opposed to the things I must, subconsciously have wanted it to be), was a novel about mothers and their children. As I said earlier, I wrote it during my children's early years. I was heavily involved in human rights activism at the time. This convergence of activism and early motherhood fascinated me - at the same time as I was completely exhausted and could barely get out of the house, being in charge of a little, helpless human being seemed to make me more passionate about social change than ever.
How would you describe the appeal of this novel to readers?
I wanted to write a book that gave people a chance to think. I don't like reading stories that give all the answers, I like to imagine the complexities and the possibilities of the story in front of me, so that's the sort of book I wrote.
How would you summarise a chapter from your debut novel in one paragraph?
The book is set in a country town, and there's one chapter where Caro, who is new to the town, goes to the hairdresser. Nothing much happens - she gets her hair washed and decides she doesn't want a colour - but she gets a few keys to mysteries she has been trying to solve, both about the town and about herself.
How would you describe the contribution this chapter makes to the novel?
I love this chapter. It's fun, but it gives the reader an insight into the lives and background of both the characters and the town.
Author website: www.tracycrisp.com
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