What inspired the idea behind this book?
Dressed By Iris is inspired by my family, in particular my Aunty Iris and my Nana. I have often included family stories in my novels but this one would be the closest to real life so far. It centres on their experiences during the Great Depression which were colourful, if struggle-filled, and very inspirational. It was written during the first lockdowns and the correlation between our challenges today and their challenges back then were simply too interesting not to examine. I found myself uplifted by their memories and with a fresh appreciation of their courage, fortitude and positivity.
What are you hoping the reader will take away from reading your book?
I hope they find hope. My Nana instilled it in her seven children, despite extreme poverty and hardship. They all went on to have amazing lives, passing her can-do, cheerful attitude on to their children as well, including myself, the youngest granddaughter. They managed to find laughter and fun during some of the most difficult periods in our country’s history and Nana taught them to ‘make do’ and to believe that things will work out for the best. It’s an undervalued thing I think, hope.
How does it feel to hold your book in your hands?
Emotional. This is me, holding my new novel not long after it arrived and there are tears in my eyes. It’s hard to believe that after such a long time of it living only in your mind, (and the minds of your hard-working editor and publisher), suddenly it will be opened up and that world will rush into the minds of thousands of others. They will hear your characters talk and laugh and cry, see them run and dance, kiss and hold each other, feel their excitement, despair, joy, their love. You hold a dream that people will dream with you, and when that’s a dream inspired by your precious family…yes, emotional is the word.
What is something that has influenced you as a writer?
Every person I’ve known, every emotion I’ve felt, every place I’ve been, every relationship I’ve had has influenced me. Every book, movie, television show, play, painting and song. But most of all, what’s influenced me is love. I could never have written about the love I feel as a wife, mother, daughter, cousin, niece, aunt, granddaughter and friend without knowing these loving relationships first-hand. I suppose if you asked me to narrow it all down to a word I would simply say ‘family’.
What’s the easiest and most difficult parts of your job as a writer?
The writing part is the easiest bit. I don’t get writer’s block and once I’m in the zone I’m off for hours, but getting there can be tricky. Sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in traffic, with orange mum-cones blocking my way: ‘Muuum, where’s my footy boots?’ ‘Did you buy milk? Where’s the milk?’. Then there’s the fact that I’m on an actual computer with a whole universe of distractions at my fingertips. Emails and social media are pretty much designed to do that, and then there’s messages to reply to, and ‘oh, that sale on boots looks a bit fabulous’ and ‘I wonder if I got any reviews on my new book?’ Before you know it, mid-morning has arrived and it’s time for a cuppa and…what was the question again? Oh yes, focus. That might be the most difficult part.
If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?
If you lack inspiration, simply begin. (Once you’ve got that focus thing under control that is.) A blank page is invisible to everyone else. It doesn’t actually matter if you write absolute twaddle, what matters is that you write something. As I said, I don’t get writer’s block but I do get ‘writer’s drivel’ from time to time, however I’ve found from experience that by actually tapping away and having words appear on the page something wonderful tends to happen: you find better words. I had a writer friend say to me once ‘everyone knows the first draft is rubbish’. I don’t like to think that is entirely true but the first few lines of a day often are. That’s the beauty of that marvellous modern writing device we call a computer: write, delete, re-write.
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