from a PR flyer, 12
September 2011
What methods of research did you use in creating Deirdre, the Wanderer?
I
would like to say I sailed to The Bahamas; but I haven’t. It was just too far out of reach at the time
I was writing the book. I do several
kinds of research for a ‘location’ novel like DTW. First, I read. I read everything I can about the actual
settings-- in fact this reading is usually what makes me want to set a story
there. Then I research details, via the
Internet or, not so long ago, encyclopaedia, textbooks, CIA fact sheets (easily
available), and especially maps and sailing charts. Perusing cartography enables me to discover
specific places for which I can acquire photographs and more detailed
maps. Google Earth has been an invaluable
resource lately for the Asian and Australian legs of Deirdre’s journey (Adventurer).
Whilst
writing DTW (in 2000-2001) I used a
then-current map of Nassau to establish Deirdre’s movements there. More recent visitors will know of the
shopping arcade off East Bay Avenue, new in 2005, or may not know of the old
Straw Market which burned down in about 2002; but the details in DTW do accurately reflect the time
period of Deirdre’s visit to Nassau (April-June 2000).
This
is all academic; it is only a start. The
refinement comes when I ask people who have been there to share their
experiences. I have several yachtie
friends who have been to The Bahamas many times and one friend who owns a condo
in Providençiales who have been fonts of knowledge. My mother took a yacht cruise in the BVI; her
experience with the harbourmaster at Jost Van Dyke (long before 9/11, when
immigration got tighter all over the world) is the basis for that in Deirdre, the Oyster’s Pearl.
Several
times now-archaic details will alert an astute reader; but remember this is
essentially an historical novel capturing a way of life no longer possible in
the modern world; and a responsible author will ensure that details like prices
and current events support, rather than detract from, the overall aura of the
setting and story.
Is the character of Deirdre based on a real person?
No;
but like all good characters in fiction she is an amalgam of several different
people with a good measure of pure make-believe thrown in. I was once involved with a girl called
Deirdre who told me of the Celtic legend, about the gifted singer who was
pursued by her family members and their rivals until all she loved were dead
and she was left to wander, weeping, for the rest of a short unhappy life. The concept of a poor homeless girl who is
forced to travel alone, never finding solace or security, was what inspired the
theme of the novel.
In your opinion how do you believe the character of Deirdre can influence other people?
In
no way was Deirdre meant to be a role model for other young people, especially
not for girls, especially not for girls who consider running away. It is more appropriate to consider her a kind
of anti-hero, doing exciting and interesting things but as a person not quite
worthy of emulation. She is a very
flawed being who makes very human mistakes and quite often, by the standards of
any responsible person, her decisions are just ‘wrong’. One might suggest that she had no truly good
reason to run away from home in the first place; but she does not mention her
reasons for leaving with any detail till the very end of DTW-- and, some might argue, not convincingly. Desperate for love and acceptance, she tends
to fall too quickly into relationships upon which her safety and security
depend; and most of these turn out badly for her. And there is the whole question of why she
has a need to keep moving when a safer and more lucrative course might be to
simply find another job where she is and settle in.
But
in other ways she represents the kind of self-made, self-reliant hero or
heroine we all want to be like. She is
clever and resourceful, beginning as a callow child with only a provincial,
immature lookout on life, and gains self-confidence through trials and
self-worth through successes. If she
should not be emulated for what she does, she might be respected and admired
for how she does what she does-- for at her best she is the stuff of which all
heroes are made, bravery, honour, dignity, perseverance and a
not-inconsequential slice of unselfish altruism into the bargain.
Why should someone want to pick up and read Deirdre, the Wanderer?
I
have called DTW ‘escapist
literature’, meaning that it’s the sort of book that takes you off to some
alternate reality for a while and makes you yearn for a world in which things
could really be like that. I think to
some extent all novel-reading is meant to do this. When we read Jane Eyre we revel in a society without mobile phones or
e-mail. When we read Horatio Hornblower we cheer for the
British imperialists and despise the French democrats. Harry
Potter makes us believe we could actually go to school to see, and even
learn, magic. Books like these we
remember longest and most fondly.
Deirdre
is a reluctant heroine who tells her story from a perspective of sheltered
innocence, youthful insecurity and naïve optimism. She is placed in a situation that requires
her to grow up quickly; and she relates her experiences with eye-opening
frankness, as though she doesn’t know how surreal or shocking it may seem to
other people. As a reader you will
naturally worry about her and sympathise with her, almost as though she were
your own friend, sister, daughter or child.
If you’ve ever wondered or worried about the trials and tribulations of
a teenager caught in a hostile environment, you will find an interest in her
story.
What would you like professors and critics to
see in Deirdre, the Wanderer?
I
would hope that professors and critics, from now through all posterity, will
recognise clever style, intelligent use of narrative and monologue, authentic
details with regard to both people and places, and a subtle but powerful
message just beneath the surface. I
would like them to see the narration as something apart from other books
ostensibly similar, and in time to see the character in the continuum of Pamela
Andrews, Jane Eyre, Tess Durbeyfield and the second Mrs DeWinter as possibly one
of the more charming female protagonists of women-centred fiction.
What would you like average readers of Deirdre, the Wanderer to see in the
book?
I
would like people to recognise Deirdre as a normal ‘girl-next-door’ who finds
herself in some very unexpected and often very formidable circumstances and has
only a very normal set of personal attributes with which to effect her own survival. She is no-one special; she could be you. Yet in the way she rises to each occasion she
illustrates what the average teenager is capable of doing, and that should both
inspire and entertain you.
I’d
also like people to, as I often say, ‘live in the book’-- to have fun with the
experience of reading it, to laugh when it’s amusing and shudder when it’s
scary; for it is both these things in due measures.
What is your own favorite part of Deirdre, the Wanderer?
There
are so many parts that it’d be hard to limit myself to only a few. I like the first paragraph, intended to draw
you into a story you don’t know yet. It
is a technique I like to use even in face-to-face conversation, for it arouses
interest and rather demands you pay attention to the next bit and so on; and
you’re still left out of the whole story for quite some time afterwards and so
have to sort of sleuth your way through it.
I
like how Deirdre’s own thoughts (given in italics) often question or comment on
the reality before her, showing her real innocence and cluelessness. It’s realistic, especially for a somewhat
sceptical and almost insolent teenager.
I
like her sense of wonder at the new places she sees and the new experiences she
has, as though she’s aware this doesn’t happen every day to most people.
And
I like how she so often puts herself down.
She is always too critical of her intelligence, her abilities and
especially her appearance; she doesn’t seem to know she is lacking in none of
that and so it’s actually ironic, humour at the expence of the character
herself.
My
favourite plot segments are the struggles with Johnnie, the sail in the
Optimist dinghy, all of Book VII and all the cosiness with Sandy. These show Deirdre for who she really is,
brave yet vulnerable, steely yet soft. I
like the characters of Tumblebunch, Iris, Tony and Petula, and Sandy MacNally--
one my favourite characters ever-- for the sheer humanity they impart to the
story.
I
don’t like Rosemarie, Leslie, Clive or Ray-- and I think that shows-- because
they seek to take advantage of Deirdre; but they also account for some of the
scariest and most interesting parts of the book.
Can you recall the first and last parts you
wrote to the story?
The
first conception of DTW was of a
homeless teenaged girl walking the length of an island in a swimsuit and
sneakers with all her worldly possessions in a bag on her back. It was to be part of another story but did
not quite fit into it and ultimately became the scene on Grand Bahama in which
Deirdre walks from Freeport to McLeans (Book V). The concept recurs several times throughout
the next two or three volumes as a kind of a defining image of the whole
series. (If there were to be a film of DTW a snip of this scene would have to
appear in the trailer!)
The
earliest elements of the plot to be established were (in no order) the sail
across the Bahama Bank in the Optimist, the stay at the private island of Sans
Souci, the scene after dinner at Ray and Marta’s house, and of course the whole
of Book I. Given these the rest of it
began to fall into place like the remainder of a jigsaw puzzle of which one has
completed only the fringe pieces.
The
last of the plot completed was either the description of how Deirdre lands the
job at Ray and Marta’s (Book VIII) or the segment at the Morton house
in which she devises a plot to get away from Clive (Book V). I like to write such all-important connexions
between earlier-written bits ‘on the fly’, during a session of editing what has
been finished, just logically leading from a prior scene into a subsequent one
by means of dialogue or brief description; and these often become some of the
most crucial scenes in the book because they set up and provide rationale for
the action segments to either side.
I
truly cannot recall what made me begin with that first line as I did; but I’m
afraid I rather impressed myself with it and in the event it’s made the whole
book through establishing the tone of voice and prevailing attitudes of the
narrator herself.
What other projects are you currently working
on?
Deirdre, the Adventurer (book 3) is in
the editing stage. Also in the works is
the initial volume of Janine, of Paradise,
a story of a young ingenue growing up in a fictitious British territory in the
tropical Pacific, as well as a sourcebook about the setting itself called The Essential Paradise. I have been working painstakingly on the HTML
files to make these works available to Amazon Kindle® readers. Colin (Bunge, Surf City Source editor) has me
devoting effort to a readers’ companion volume for DTW, featuring essays, study questions, and rosters of data such as
Deirdre’s full itinerary, budget, and her wardrobe, all of which represent
vital support for the authenticity of Deirdre’s story-- and make pretty good
reading on their own!
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