Q&A: Patricia Wolf, Author of Opal

Briefly tell us about your book

Opal is the third book in the DS Walker series. DS Lucas Walker is an AFP cop working in the organised crime division. In Opal, we find him off duty and out bush in Queensland with his little sister Grace, who is visiting from Boston. They’re fetching his cousin Blair, who’s been mining boulder opal in Kanpara. The town is tense with rumours of a big opal find, and Blair wants out. But Kanpara is in Channel Country, and when the three try to leave they find the town is cut off. A deluge far north has flooded the rivers overnight, making the roads impassable. Then Blair receives a shocking phone call: two bodies have been found, brutally murdered. They’re trapped, with a killer in their midst​ and when Blair is arrested by local police, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Walker is in a race against time to uncover the murderer, clear his cousin’s name and keep his sister safe.

What was the research process like for the book?

Research is one of my favourite parts of writing a book. I start by doing online and library research, usually around the crime I’m thinking of. Before I put pen to paper, I decide who is going to die and how and also what clues they’re leaving behind for Walker to help him solve the case. I also think it’s important to do some on the ground research wherever the book is set. In this case, that meant spending almost a month in Queensland’s opal mining fields, the area between Cunnamulla, Quilpie, Jundah, Longreach and Winton. I spent a few days in each town, met with as many opal miners as I could and was even lucky enough to visit a few claims and watch opals being mined. I met opal buyers and jewellers, too, spent time drinking beers with locals and listening to yarns in the pub (it’s a tough job but someone has to do it!). I also spent time out bush on my own, soaking up the sounds and scents and atmosphere. Afterwards, my mind full to the brim with images and stories, I can’t wait to sit down and write it all out.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

I think it’s important to write regular​ly – even just 10 minutes a day is enough – and ​to keep ​moving the story forward. Often when you start working on a novel, or any piece of writing, you find yourself having a lot of doubts. It happens to me all the time. I’ll think the beginning isn’t good enough or the structure isn’t working, or the characters are changing in weird ways. It’s tempting to go back and try to perfect what you’ve already written. But my advice is don’t do that. Make a note to yourself of what’s bothering you but keep writing. Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing until you get to the end of the story. It won’t be perfect, probably not even close but now you have something complete to work with. Now you can spend as long as you need editing, improving, developing. If you don’t write through to the finish, you can find yourself eternally stuck in the first few chapters because, in my experience at least, no piece of writing ever feels perfect!

Who are some of your favourite authors? Or favourite books?

I think it’s part of a writer’s job to read – I honestly believe the more you read the better you write – and I read so many and all types of books that it’s hard to name just a few. I love crime fiction, of course, and one of my all time favourites is Aussie author Peter Temple. I like his Jack Irish series: a great character and wonderful depiction​s of Melbourne. The Broken Shore is ​probably my favourite book of his. It’s so beautifully written, everything from the plot and characters, to description, language and dialogue. I have total writer’s envy when I read it! Two other (not crime fiction) books that I’ve read recently and which have joined my favourites are Prophet Song by Paul Lynch and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Both of them are lyrical and beautiful but, also, especially Prophet Song, devastating. They stay with you a long time after you finish them.

What’s your daily writing routine like and what are you working on at the moment?

At the moment I’m working on Book 4 in the Walker series. I usually work six days a week and write for between three and four hours a day, roughly between 10am and 2pm. I aim to write 2000 words a day, so I go to my desk, sit down at my laptop and write until I’ve hit my target. Sometimes it only takes a couple of hours, other days it takes longer. In the afternoons, I try to get out of the office to have a walk or a coffee, go to a bookshop, or have a swim. I’ll still be thinking about whatever it is I’m working on – what I want to write the next day, ​​what I’ve written that day,​ what things I want to change or add – but in a  more background kind of way. It’s not like I’m 100 per cent focused on it, things just swim up into my consciousness. If I’m struggling with the plot or some other issue, this time of day is especially important. Taking a walk is the best way I know to figure out writing problems! Usually, sometime in the evening before I go to bed, I’ll jot down what I plan to write the next day. That way I know where I’m starting when I come back to it in the morning. 

Buy a copy of Opal here.