Bristol, England
Good morning, Kerry, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors. Tell us a little about what you've written.
Here are some websites:
The Artist’s Muse, a novel about the
life of Wally Neuzil, model to Gustav Klimt then Egon Schiele, 2 of the most
influential artists of the 20th century. It shows the great impact
she had on their work while showing the toxic impact they had on her life and
reputation. An unequal partnership but one from which she learns and grows.
What is your favorite
genre to write?
My first novel is historical/literary
fiction. It was the subject matter that appealed to me as opposed to the genre
per se. I went to an art exhibition in Vienna, saw rooms full of paintings of
the same model, Wally Neuzil, but could discover very little about her other than
she had been humiliated then discarded by the painters she served. I looked
into the history of the time – gender, art, politics – and was shocked to see
the deep-seated misogyny at its core. To see Wally’s life in this context
brought her story alive and compelled me to tell it through her eyes.
Favorite food.
Oh! I love all food. My
favourite? Spaghetti alle vongole. Or mussels…or langoustines…pretty much love anything
Italian and seafood.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee. I love the
smell of it. Though when I’ve drunk too much I switch to tea.
Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza.
Wine or beer?
Wine. Red, white, sparkling.
Sometimes forget sparkling is NOT lemonade…
Where would you like to
visit?
At the moment I’m
writing a novel about the Spanish Civil War and so I would like to visit
Madrid, Malaga and Barcelona. However, my starting point would have to be the
small village of Fuentes de Andalucia as I have chosen the atrocity that occurred
there as the trigger for what happens in the rest of the novel.
Favorite musical
artist.
I have eclectic tastes
and my favourite changes according to my mood. Though if pushed, I would say
that my enduring loyalty goes to David Bowie. Favourite song ‘Heroes’.
Do you listen to music
when you write?
Sometimes. Though
sometimes I like to read my work back to myself to see if the sentences flow. I
look to give them their own musicality in which case I then need complete
silence.
What do you listen to?
Billie Holiday, Amy
Winehouse, U2, Patti Smith, folk music, some jazz. I’ve even been known to
listen to music from the country and time I’m writing about, just to get me in
the mood.
What makes you laugh?
Great satire makes me
laugh and can be so cathartic. People often take themselves far too seriously
and it does them and everyone else good when their bubble is burst.
Favorite work of art or
sculpture.
I have to say ‘Portrait
of Wally’ by Egon Schiele although Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ takes my breath
away.
How old were you when
you started writing?
I started writing in my
teens, wrote articles in my 20’s and 30’s, though didn’t finish a novel until
my early 50’s. A late starter.
Do you plan out your
book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
Oh, to be a good
planner! I try outlines, but when I start to write I end up going completely
off-piste. After The Artist’s Muse I was determined to be stricter about
planning but now I’m on my second novel I’m making the same ‘mistakes’. I
imagine that this way of writing (where I go off at tangents) is the most
natural for me. It takes me into directions I hadn’t considered and when I look
back at what I’ve written, it surprises me that it’s usually better than what
I’d planned.
Describe your perfect
evening.
My perfect evening
would be dinner out with my family. To share food, wine and conversation with
the people I love is, for me, one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Where do you get your
inspiration?
Inpsiration for The
Artist’s Muse came from a visit to an Egon Schiele exhibition at the Leopold
Museum in Vienna.
I wasn’t looking for a story to write but it presented
itself to me nevertheless. Images of the artist’s model were everywhere – some
beautiful, all challenging, others disturbing. I wanted to find out more about
this woman, so integral to the artist’s work. Then, when I did, I wanted to
tell her story.
Similarly, with my
second novel about the Spanish Civil War, it was the treatment of girls and
women by Franco’s rebels that propelled me into action. The brutal, sexist
punishments meted out to their female ‘enemies’ – such as dosing up with castor
oil, shaving their heads, raping…- inspired me to write their story. I don’t
see myself solely as a feminist writer but
female issues are central to my work. Women have inspired me and I owe it to
them to tell their story.
What do you do when you
get a writer's block?
I either go back to my
source material (eg. books I’m using for research) or I read a few pages of a
good book and study the writing.
Who is your favorite
author?
I studied A la
Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust at university and I run a Proust book
group because Proust is my favourite author. His writing it so layered, full of
cultural references, social and psychological observations and it is full of
humour. His scathing wit is merciless – no one is exempt, not even himself. For
me he is the most human of writers, and it takes so long to read him that when
you finish it’s like saying goodbye to a dear, dear friend. That’s why I set up
the book group – so that I could read my friend again and get to know him even
better.
When I first started
writing I used to work through exercises from Ursula LeGuin’s marvellous book
on how to write, ‘Steering the Craft’, where she recommends you write in the
style of a favourite author. I sometimes try to do that but no one has noticed
my attempts to channel my inner Proust yet.
Also, when I found out
that he wrote his own early reviews (glowing, of course), I loved him even
more. So flawed. So human.
Best book you ever
read.
A
la Recherche du Temps Perdu.
Last book you read.
‘The Life and Death of
the Spanish Republic: a witness to the Spanish Civil War’ by Henry Buckley
(part of my research library for my second novel). I’m currently reading ‘The
Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood.
What would you do for a
living if you weren’t a writer?
I would be a teacher. I
used to be a Modern Languages teacher in a secondary school until I was
attacked in the classroom. It was because of that incident that I became a
writer. Here is a link to a radio programme about my transition http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05hcvxn from teacher to writer (interview from 2hrs 10 minutes in). I would
probably still be doing that if the attack hadn’t happened.
Who is the one person
who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My friend Simon. He has
shown me how important it is to love and be loved. He doesn’t judge, always
supports me and I try to do the same for him. He has been my best friend for
nearly 36 years and he has shown me that when awful things happen they don’t
have to define you.
If you could sit down
and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who
would it be and why?
I would have like to
have a conversation with Marcel, the narrator of A la Recherche because,
although he has so many things in common with Proust the man, Marcel, as Proust’s
fictional self, expresses the essence of the man without being dragged down by
the extraneous details of his life. In the novel everything has been carefully
chosen, his every word intended to have significance. Therefore to enter this
perfectly constructed world and have a conversation with this perfectly
constructed character who I know so well and love so much would be a delight.
Ideal venue would be at a party where we’d sit in the corner. He would be
talking about the other guests and I would be laughing guiltily as he shows me
how a misspent youth does not exclude you from becoming a writer.
What advice would you
give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Less talk, more
writing. Although in fairness it’s all part of the process. Write every day, write
about anything. Join a group if you can find one, create your own if you can’t.
Don’t be too hard on yourself and remember to always enjoy it!
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
As she prepares him for his big race, she must deal with not only his physical and mental condition but only his beautiful, demented wife while driving her boyfriend, Dr. Garrett MacEgan, into criminal acts in a desperate attempt to hold on to her.
