''It may not make any sense at the time but if I write it and follow it through, it usually makes sense in the end.'' It can be tempting to say, 'Oh, there's nothing there,' but in my experience, if you wait without expectation or demand, there's always something there that will eventually let itself be seen. ''For me, the trick is to stay, just stay. The process was like walking into a dark room after having been out in bright sunlight: at first you see nothing and think the room is empty, then little by little, as your eyes adjust, things emerge from the shadows and you see what's in there. ''All that came within a day or two of writing. Most days, Stedman would go to a corner of the British Library, with its green leatherback chairs and desk lamps, to ride her imagination to her homeland and carry back memories of the smell of eucalypts, the blinding slash of sunshine and the expressive cadence of the Australian vernacular. After shopping it to an agent who told her it had the makings of a novel, Stedman began ''rolling the pastry, this way and that'', folding in archival research on lighthouse keepers and the bleakness of Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, which she visited to find living inspiration for Janus Rock. The Light Between Oceans began as a short story of 15,000 words whipped together in three months. Three novellas were published in an out-of-print anthology, Desperate Remedies, in 2008. She hired a writing coach, went to Greece on a creative-writing holiday, where she wrote her first published short story, Flight, and went on to study creative writing part time at the University of London. Working in London as a lawyer in 1997, while staring at her office computer screen, she had a eureka moment, ''from God knows where'', deciding then to try creative writing. These are the dot points of her writing life that Stedman reluctantly offers for public consumption: raised and schooled in Perth, she says she always adored the artistry of words, had an affinity for them. ''As the book's not autobiographical, details of my life won't really shed light on the story for the reader and I'd much rather let readers focus on the book and their own experience of it.'' In only her second media interview, by phone from Perth, Stedman is nervous and bats back questions about her age, schooling, family and her work as a lawyer with a polite: ''I really don't want to answer that.'' Stedman later explains that she has never been one to seek out the limelight. Stedman was born and raised in Western Australia and now lives in London.'' Even her first name, Margot, is concealed. Her official biography comprises a single line: ''M.L. Her belief in the authority of the reader lies partly behind her attempts to maintain relative anonymity in the wake of her mass-market success. Stedman interviewed each interested publisher, clear-eyed and stubborn in her intent to find someone who recognised her endeavours to explore life's eternal questions about truth, redemption and the nature of happiness for a broad readership of women and men. I have no explanation for it,'' she says of the bidding war. ''It was wild, just so far beyond my experience and imagining. In the US, Stedman procured a ''high six-figure'' for this, her first novel-length manuscript, a rare book that crosses literary and commercial fiction. It's these universal themes as well as the strong evocation of place that captured the interest of no less than nine British publishers. Perhaps it's easier to fool yourself when you cannot see the face of those who are affected by what you do.'' ''The story throws up the role of isolation on morality - when you don't see the impact of your actions. ''Their presence offers up a marvellous set of dichotomies the human imagination likes to explore - darkness and light, safety and danger, stasis and movement, isolation and communication. ''There is something that appeals to the human psyche about lighthouses because of their isolation,'' Stedman says.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |