First things first, Episode 2 of
"Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy"
Mama Bunyip found the baby Panathea, almost dead, in the sewer. Most Bunyips would just eat the human child.
But Mama Bunyip had the Touch and saw there was something about that girl. Touch said Prophecy.
So Pan was raised by Bunyips in the dark and stinking tunnels beneath the City.
Pan was 13 when Mama Bunyip died; her protection among the other Bunyips gone. She climbed to the streets above.
Most stray teenage girls were chewed up and spat out by the Streets.
But Pan was raised by Bunyips. The other Street scum soon found out what that meant.
More excitement tomorrow....
I was interviewed today by Debbie Howell as part of Spec Fic NZ Blogging week and my answers are on her excellent blog - (
http://deberelene.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/author-interview-richard-barnes/#more-1399) She writes about far more interesting things than me as well.
In return I chucked some questions to her. And please, I'm sure Debbie's ignorance of Doctor Who is just an accident of circumstance and not an appalling lack of taste, after all, she correctly identifies Tim Tams as being better than Toffee Pops:
Tim Tams or Toffee Pops?
I think I'd have to go TimTams ... That's a bit of an eye-opener, eh? When I was younder, it would definitely have been Toffee Pops. But, I guess, my sweet tooth isn't quite what it once was.
On the other hand, Toffee Pops thrown in a food processor (a whole packet) with some cream cheese (250g?? I think ... been a while), whizzed, rolled into balls and covered in choc sprinkles, or chopped peanuts, or whatever .... divine ... let me repeat - DI-VINE.
What was the best meal you ever had?
Hmm .. There are a few that I vaguely remember, but the one I can actually describe, was the old version of the Moonriver Salmon from Lone Star (did I say I was classy? Hey, Lone Star used to do good value meals ... now they're expensive, but they give us free meals for our birthdays ...). The salmon was served on noodles. The noodles had some sort of brown sauce on it ... soy, mixed with oyster, perhaps? (I think that's what I did when I recreated it at home, anyway). But the best bit? The aoli with just a hint of wasabi through it ... YUM!
And which movie can you watch over and over again?
Much to my husband's chagrin: UHF (aka "The Videot from UHF"), aka: Weird Al's movie. But, last time we watched it (I found another person who hadn't seen it! Yay! I had to enlighten them ... but, no, you don't borrow the DVD, I must watch with you ...) hubby still laughed. I think he just groans about it for show. It's a funny movie. Otherwise, there's the classics like "The Neverending Story", "Dirty Dancing", "Cocktail", and of course "Star Wars". I suppose Michael Jackon's "This Is It" counts as a movie, so that one slides in there, too.
Who is best Doctor Who?
Erm ... next? (oops)
What piece of writing are you most proud of and why?
I'm going to say I have two. I have a short story called "Oasis", which I was challenged to write last year by the Canaries from thecanaryreview.com. I had been lamenting over how much harder it was to write fiction than non-fiction (once the research has been done, of course), and that led to a challenge to write 10 pages, double-spaced in three days, with the prompt: "Main character wakes up with no memory, a stolen animal (your pick), and an incessant cough". The cough was easy - I had a cold at the time, myself. It was tough - I was sick and I had to turn all dragon-lady-ish over my writing time, banishing hubby and toddler from the house as often as possible, but I did it ... and then that story went on to earn 2nd place in a local Writers' Workshop contest. Not too shappy.
And, of course, I'm proud of my novel, "Healer's Touch". It started out as nothing more than a way to pass the time when I was temping. I found myself with the most mind-numbing job of sitting there waiting for the phone to ring so I could put the caller through to the person they actually wanted to talk to ... Yeah ... no "Press 1 for so-and-so", nope, you got me for that. In between phone calls, there was nothing for me to do (and for security reasons the internet was pretty well locked down, so no email, no FB, no games ...). And so, I turned to pen and paper.
What started out as nothing rekindled my relationship with the written word (I had left fiction behind in my pursuit of a scientific career ... yeah, that turned out well). And now I'm due to publish it early next year! Of course, the story bears little resemblance to those early days, although my original MC is still there, he's just been relegated. Also, I wasn't going to have magic, initially ... I wanted a "real world", with scientific explanations. But, magic is fun to play with, so I brought that in, and the story shaped itself from there.
So, yeah, keep an eye out for "Healer's Touch" in 2013 (o:
Outliner or Pantster?
I started out as a pantster because I wasn't even trying. But once I got it on my head that I'd like the story to really be something, I drafted an outline here and there, and I applied story structure - woo! Sure, I had a go at writing off on other tangents, but I did, ultimately, return to the outline I kind of had in the back of my head from way back when. Sure, I've slipped in parts of my experiments, but on the whole, I stuck to my vague plan, that became less vague as time went on.
These days, I find myself more comfortable with something in the way of a plan in mind. But, if I start hearing voices in my head, then those scenes get written down as is, ready to go where they are needed.
I think I am a Pantsliner? Hmm ... that doesn't sound right ...
Do you have a day job?
Oh yes. Technically 2, I guess. I have a part-time job as well as being a mum. Luckily being mum to a toddler means I get day-time sleep times to write/read/interwebs, for now ...
Lady Macbeth is often seen as the Fourth witch. Discuss.
Oh, gosh ... Been too long since I checked out any Shakespeare. And my favourite was always "A Midsummer Night's Dream", so I'm a little lost on the witches ... and Macbeth. Better add them to my reading list, eh?
