Bestselling Australian novelist Di Morrissey has just published her 20th novel in 20 years, The Opal Desert (Macmillan). Andrea Hanke spoke to the author about her career journey, changes in publishing, new media vs ‘pressing the flesh’, and the marginalisation of women’s writing and popular fiction.
Twenty novels in 20 years is an extraordinary achievement. What kind of discipline is required to meet these publishing deadlines, year in and year out?
When you start writing you don’t think past getting that story out and hopefully getting it published, but when you have the commitment of a contract there is an additional motivation. I have a very strong, perhaps old-fashioned, work ethic. I shudder when I hear of people who have a contract or potential interest in their work and diddle around and can’t meet their deadline and never produce anything. I’m there on the day it’s due, manuscript in hand for better or worse. I also understand it’s not just about me but there is a whole team involved, a schedule, a business plan, marketing campaign and people who depend on me producing a publishable book. The writing process may be a solitary endeavour but there is a massive machine involving many dedicated people that take your original scribbles and turn it into a polished, professional product, so it does put considerable pressure on me. And of course, when you have a successful book the expectation is there to do an even better next book.
When you look back over your career, how has the way in which your books are edited, published and promoted changed over the years? Is the publishing industry better at its job today than it was 20 years ago?
Well technology has made it easier in many ways to write. When I first started I mailed hard copy to my editor, so email has certainly speeded things up. Publishers today don’t like to take risks and have had to adapt, to be more focused, take less of a scatter-gun approach and hope a book on spec does well, as they can’t afford a failure in these more competitive times. So I wouldn’t want to be starting out now! Marketing is even more vital now and traditional media campaigns have changed as social networking and an online presence reaches an audience as quickly and effectively as a print or radio ad. Authors have to be prepared to adapt to the new media but frankly, I still feel that word of mouth and ‘pressing the flesh’ is as powerful as ever. Publishing houses have had to be more savvy as well as cost-conscious, the old conservative days of British publishing dominating the Empire are gone but try telling them that! There’s still a bit of literary snobbishness and parochialism with international publishers believing their books outrank ours.
There has been a lot of talk recently about a gender bias in literary criticism and awards. What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you support the creation of a new women-only book prize? And do you think we need more book prizes for genres outside literary fiction?
There is no question that the bias exists. Women are not reviewed as seriously or in as great a depth or frequency as men. Nor do women receive as many awards as men. But to section ourselves off with women-only prizes and categories is buying into the marginalisation, i.e. ‘Men do art, women do craft’. Besides, I think there are enough specialist categories for a variety of genres. We know literary fiction usually doesn’t sell anywhere near what popular fiction sells, yet the ‘literary’ tag imbues a book with some kind of merit so these ‘serious’ authors content themselves with a badge of assumed quality when most would secretly prefer to have a royalty cheque of quantity. And let’s face it, if a heap of people buy a book, and continue to show loyalty to a particular popular author, then that author must be doing something right.
Of all 20 novels, which is your favourite?
I don’t have a favourite book per se, it is a bit like choosing a favourite child. But I have to confess to a slight affection for Tears of the Moon as it was the book that broke me out in hardback and international sales. And it was a deliberate strategy to find a mainstream and male audience and change the perception of me being a writer of romance fiction.
Which book has been the hardest to write?
The one I’m writing now! I face each new book with trepidation and insecurity, I never feel complacent and the more successful you become and the more you write, the greater the pressure. But equally I do it because of the passion and fulfilment that I only find from writing.
What has inspired your latest novel?
I’ve always loved opals, and I first visited the opal fields in the 1980s and decided I wanted to spend time in this strange word and write about it one day. I’ve been going to Lightning Ridge for many years and I saw how the industry was changing and decided this was the year to explore the lure and obsession that draws people to this different lifestyle and isolated community. It’s also about women’s friendship. The bonds and special connection and emotional support women draw from each other. This book explores the relationship between three women of differing generations who find themselves in the remote and wonderful opal fields.
Isobelle Carmody is back with book six in the ‘Obernewtyn Chronicles’. Reviewer Stefen Brazulaitis writes, ‘The good news for fans is that it is not the last [Obernewtyn book], although it does manoeuvre the characters into position for what looks to be a fairly dramatic conclusion.’ He spoke to Carmody.
Magic in the ‘Obernewtyn Chronicles’ is firmly grounded in real-world mysticism. What do you think of the ways magic is being used in modern fantasy?
A top-secret base known only as ‘Dragon Island’ houses a weapon of mass destruction. When the island is hijacked, and the weapon is re-activated by a brutal terrorist force calling itself the ‘Army of Thieves’, marine captain Shane Schofield is called on to save the world. 
Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (Macmillan) is Matthew Reilly’s fifth book in the Scarecrow series (including the spin-off novella Hell Island, produced for Books Alive in 2003). In the latest instalment, Reilly has ‘humanised an often superhero-like character’ while creating his ’most cruel and violent villains yet’, says reviewer Emily Smith. (See her review 
Foz Meadows recently snuck into my reading pile with the first book in ‘The Rare’ series. I was intrigued. A group of teenagers who were in possession of varying powers, brought together on a quest by the vampire Solace, the rightful heir to the castle Starveldt. Amid the overwhelming number of vampire books that were (and still are) filling the shelves, this series came as a welcome surprise. Although Solace is a vampire, the teenagers are not, and Meadows considers the dynamics of their group where each member is marked by a particular difference. These dynamics are probed even further in the second book, as Solace hurtles towards her destiny. The majority of the book is spent in the Rookery, a safe haven for paranormals, misfits and others, and the vivid descriptions of character and place are a delight to read. The reader is also given the opportunity to learn more of the complex back story. Foz Meadows seems to have hit her stride in the second book, and the characters, plot and setting that started out strong in her 2010 debut have found a steady rhythm, and will no doubt secure her readers’ interest in books to come.
Jeffrey Eugenides’ 
You capture the feeling of the ocean brilliantly. Are you a sailor yourself?
John Bell’s On Shakespeare is neither a biography of the bard nor a history of the Bell Shakespeare Company, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Rather, it’s a distillation of a lifetime of studying, acting in and directing Shakespeare’s plays, from student theatre to stints with London and Stratford’s Royal Shakespeare Companies to his company’s own productions. Bell is interested in Shakespeare’s character, putting paid to rumours that he wasn’t the real author of the plays. However, the focus of this book lies in the staging of his plays: how should an actor prepare for a role, and how might a director stage a modern production? As examples, Bell cites the many, many plays he has seen or participated in, recalling the performances of the greats (Lawrence Oliver, Paul Scofield) as well as some more obscure productions (including several staged behind the Iron Curtain). Each of Shakespeare’s plays is given brief consideration, with chapters on the Histories, the Tragedies, the Comedies, the Romances, the Romans, as well as the sonnets. These chapters are interspersed with imaginary ‘interviews’ with various acquaintances of Shakespeare, which, though imaginatively written, sit a little oddly with the rest of the text. This book will appeal to those with an interest in Shakespeare and the theatre, in particular students, rather than serious Shakespeare fans who may find it a little lightweight.
The love between schoolgirl Nora and fallen angel Patch has transcended the boundary between heaven and earth. After overcoming the secrets of Patch’s dark past and facing heart-wrenching tests along the way, they must now stop a villain who seeks to destroy their loving bond. So goes Becca Fitzpatrick’s Silence (S&S), the third book in the ‘Hush, Hush’ saga, which is at the top of the highest new entries chart and has snuck into fourth place on the bestsellers chart. The three top bestsellers didn’t budge from their previous positions this week. They are The Affair (Lee Child, Bantam), followed by Lola’s Secret (Monica McInerney, Michael Joseph), then Kill Alex Cross (James Patterson, Arrow Books). The Ox is Slow But the Earth is Patient (Mick Malthouse & David Buttifant, A&U) is at the top of the fastest movers chart–Weekly Book Newsletter.
William Cyril ‘Mad Dog’ Moxley was hanged at Long Bay Gaol in 1932 for the murder of Frank Barnaby Wilkinson and the rape and murder of Dorothy Ruth Denzel. The brutal crimes and resulting investigation attracted extensive public interest and newspaper coverage. Although registered as ‘an habitual criminal’, Moxley had not previously committed a crime of this nature. Syphilitic and suffering migraines, dizzy spells and blackouts after a gunshot wound to the head, he claimed he could not recall the terrible things he had done. Using archival material to explore the legal, political and police systems of the time, crime writer Peter Corris—best known for his ‘Cliff Hardy’ series—tries to get inside Moxley’s head and reconstruct the Depression-era Sydney of the time. Why did Moxley do it, and if he’d been tried today, would he have been found guilty? As the story unfolds, fact interweaves with fiction as Corris reconstructs scenes full of great dialogue; at times these scenes made me hanker after the novel that Corris decided not to write. This is a fascinating book that will appeal to fans of crime (both true and fiction) and authentic Sydney stories. It is the first in a new series of books from NewSouth that are written by popular crime-fiction authors covering real crimes that have caught their imagination.