The View from Here interview

Mike French interviewd me for the literary magazine The View from Here. Read the interview here, or in the May paper edition of the magazine, or in the on-line magazine


Coffee?

A small cappuccino with an extra shot and a sprinkling of chocolate, please.

Biscuit?

A dark chocolate Florentine would be lovely.

Tell us something about yourself.

I look perfectly normal on the outside, considering how weird the inside of my head is.

What is your favourite way to spend an evening?

Sitting contentedly in the quiet of my parlour, reading. I don’t get to do that very often!

Do you have any favourite words or phrases?

I love being home so two of my favourite words are ‘cartref’ which is ’home’ and ‘hiraeth’ which has no exact English equivalent, but is that feeling of loss and longing you experience when you’re away from someone or something or someplace you love. My favourite English word is ‘melancholy’ and my current favourite English phrase is one my youngest son used to describe me when I was confused about something one time - ‘on tour with the Rolling Stones’ - I use it a lot! My current favourite Welsh phrase was written by our, then, national poet – Gwyneth Lewis – and is on the outside of the Welsh Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, ‘Creu gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen’ - it sends shivers down my spine, but it loses its alliterative music in translation to: Creating truth like glass from the furnace of song.

Can you tell us something about your book The Earth Hums in B Flat?

It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s even a bit Gothic in places. The Guardian called it ‘sober and sparkling’ (21.03.09). It’s told by a girl who doesn’t want to grow up because the adult world makes her uneasy. She deals with her unease by living in the world of her imagination, and trying to ignore what she doesn’t want to see or understand. But, when a local man disappears, everything becomes a great deal more complicated …

How did you get your publishing deal with Canongate and how did that feel?

First, I had to find an agent. Then my agent sent the novel around to publishers she thought might be interested in it, and two publishers expressed an interest at the same time. I liked what Jamie Byng and Anya Serota had to say about The Earth Hums and their plans for it and decided that Canongate was the publisher for me. After a year I’m even more certain that I made the right choice. How did I feel? Pleased and thankful.

How easy was it to find an agent to represent you?

I was lucky enough to find my agent fairly quickly. I’d had five rejection letters before I received the telephone call asking for the remainder of the book to be sent. I’d done my homework beforehand to find who might be interested in my book, but there was still a lot of luck involved, I’m sure – that the agent who might be interested had not just closed his or her list, for instance.

What was the most important thing you learned on the creative writing Masters you studied at Manchester Metropolitan University?

The most important thing I learnt was that it was OK to write the way I do: for years I had thought that my style was rubbish because it wasn’t like anybody else’s. It sounds daft in hindsight, but that was the way it was. The other important thing I learnt was to read fiction as a writer rather than a reader - to see the craft behind the writing.

You were named recently as one of Waterstone’s New Voices for this year, how did you hear about that and what was your reaction?

I heard before Christmas but there was a press embargo on the information! Neither I nor Canongate knew when it was going to be made official. I was convinced Waterstone’s were going to change their minds! But - phew! - they didn’t. So I was both pleased and relieved when it was announced in The Times at the end of February. Of all the accolades a writer can have, this is one of the best - prizes are nice to have, of course, but most are judged by four or five people, whereas the New Voices are chosen by lots of Waterstone’s booksellers, people who know about books.

Would you like to see the book in the Welsh language?

Well, most of it is in Welsh - it just happens to be written in English! Seriously, if it were to be turned into Welsh I would have re-write it rather than translate it. When Canongate bought The Earth Hums they acquired world rights except for Welsh translation rights, which I kept in the hope that one day I might have time to work on re-writing it.

There is an amazing scene in the book involving a fox fur. The image of which has stuck in my head! Do you have dramatic moments from your own childhood that stays with you and can you tell us about one of them?

I wish I had! I wish I could! My childhood was so ordinary (and so long ago!) that I don’t remember much about it. All the drama was in my imagination and the stories and poems and pretend newspapers I wrote and in the books I voraciously read. I’m not sure how I would have coped with all the drama Gwenni has in her life!

What kind of things ended up in your pretend newspapers?!

I can’t remember what I used to write about, but I remember carefully ruling in the columns, writing the ‘news’ in pencil, and drawing pictures to go with the stories, then sewing the pages together down the left hand side. I can’t remember anyone being remotely interested in reading my newspapers! I just enjoyed making them. I’ve always loved the physicality of books and paper and writing instruments – it’s probably why I still work that first draft in longhand, and why I would never be enticed by e-books!

Can you give us some tips on writing, what works for you?

Writers work in quite different ways, but I find that I have to write the first draft straight through without going back to re-write and shape the writing. That way I have something to work on when I come to what is, for me, the best part of writing - the shaping of that first draft into something as closely resembling the book I have in my head as I can possibly make it. When I’m actually writing as opposed to drafting I try to use all the senses to bring the writing alive, and use strong verbs, and keep adjectives and adverbs for when they really make a difference. Words are a writer’s power tools and it’s crucial to be able to use them effectively I’d recommend Fairfax and Moat’s book The Way to Write to anyone who writes - it’s about how to use words, rather than how to plot or create characters. And of course, anyone who wants to write should read, read, read!

Do you have a set place to work? And do you work in quiet or do you have to have a background er … hum … as it were?

We travel about quite a bit with my husband’s work so it doesn’t do to get too precious about where I write. When I’m at home I tend to do the longhand stuff at the kitchen table, because my computer lives in a big cupboard on the landing where there is no desk space. I do first draft in longhand, type it up on the computer, then do all the editing and re-writing on the printouts and so on ad infinitum - it’s a very messy business - and I can work on printouts anywhere I go, and then put it all into the computer when I’m home again. I prefer quiet but find that sitting in a coffee shop with a lot of noise around is almost the same! I find it difficult to work if the noise is anything other than that kind of general hum. Music or chat on the radio, for instance, is just too distracting.

Where does the notion come from that the Earth has a song, and why B Flat?

At the turn of the century I worked for a big millennium project that was all about sustainable development. One of the galleries was a wonderful art installation where moving images, accompanied by sound and music, were projected onto huge glass henges to show the beauty of life on Earth and the destruction we wreak on it. The centrepiece of this installation was a ‘bottomless’ black pool over which the Earth was suspended - if a visitor held out her arm to touch the planet a laser beam would be broken which would cause the gallery to be filled with a low hum in B Flat - the sound the Earth makes in space, except that out there the hum is far too deep for the human ear to hear it. All planets emit a sound, apparently, which scientists are somehow able to pick up. The project unfortunately ran out of money before the centrepiece could be completed and I never did hear the song of the Earth!! But, it was there at the back of my mind and presented itself (eventually) as the title I was searching for and a kind of a metaphor for the whole book.

Can you tell us something about your next book and how that is going?

My next book is set just after the Great War - I’m interested in how people cope in times of great change - and I’ve done quite a bit of research and preparatory work but I’m nowhere near where I should be in the writing of it! Panic!

Has it felt different approaching the second book after the publication of your first book - is there an increased confidence or are you nervous that you can replicate the success of the first?

When I’m thinking about my next book, researching for it, working on the characters, finding the right voice for my main character and so on, I don’t think about anything else. I know I can write a novel from start to finish now, and I don’t see any reason why I can’t do it again (not famous last words, I hope!). I guess that’s a kind of confidence that comes with publication. The panic is because I’m due to hand this next book to the publishers in January 2010 and I’ll need to burn the midnight oil and the candle at both ends to do that!

Do you dream of flying?

I used to, and when I was very young I was convinced, like Gwenni, that I had actually flown not just dreamt it. I rarely remember my dreams nowadays, so perhaps I still do fly in them - I certainly wake up very tired some mornings, and my sister, who is interested in these things, tells me it is a sign that I have been journeying in my sleep!



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