Interviews

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Interview with Lorena Carrington about A Puzzling Pursuit

I’ve always been in awe of the extraordinary, multi-faceted talent of my lovely friend and fellow creator Lorena Carrington, with whom I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate on several works, including picture books (Satin and The Giant) two collections (French Fairy Tales and Magical Tales from French Camelot) and three productions in our joint Pardalote Press imprint (two books, Bird’s Eye View and Secrets of the Good-Fairy House and Wayfarer, a pack of myriorama storytelling cards). As well, in 2024 I was proud to have been involved in publishing Lorena’s first junior fiction title, Leaf Letters. And now, I’m thrilled to see Lorena’s new book, A Puzzling Pursuit (Penguin), which was officially released last week. A fabulous combination of mystery, puzzles and travel, the book features ten baffling cases around an overarching mystery, accompanied by a hundred illustrated puzzles to help you crack the cases, all within a breakneck race around Australia. It’s a fabulous book and a fabulous concept and I caught up with Lorena to find out more about it.

1.First of all, Lorena, congratulations on the publication of A Puzzling Pursuit! Can you tell us a bit about how it all came about?

Thank you! Like so many of my books and projects, I fell into working on this book from a bit of a sideways angle. It all started with Leaf Letters actually! I had heard that cryptic crossword writer Liam Runnalls had moved to town, and messaged him to ask if he’d like a copy of the book. I had name-checked him and David Astle in it very briefly. We caught up for coffee a couple times, and then he asked me to proofread (proof-solve?!) the puzzles in his book Birdle (https://www.penguin.com.au/books/birdle-9781761350429). That put me in contact with the delightful Ashwin Khurana at Penguin, and I’m afraid I harassed him until he suggested an Australian themed murder mystery puzzle book. I put together a proposal for them early last year, then spent six months frantically attempting to ‘walk the talk’ of all I had promised!

2. I know that you are a dedicated crossword and puzzle fan, not just as a reader/completer (if that’s a word! ) but also as a creator of them. What first drew you to them?

I’ve always loved puzzles, especially book related ones. As a kid I was obsessed with Graeme Base’s The Eleventh Hour (https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-eleventh-hour-a-curious-mystery-9780140541489), so much so that I’d start seeing little hidden mice in real life. And also Masquerade by Kit Williams. I also loved Rolf Heiman’s Maze books. As a adult, I fell in love with cryptic crosswords, and of course joined the Wordle craze along with everyone else in 2020. It’s still the first thing I do every morning – I currently have a 1223 day streak to uphold!

3.Did you have the whole concept for the book in mind from the beginning—the structure, characters, places etc?

This is the book that taught me I’m a plotter at heart. Everything had to be laid out carefully before I began. I wasn’t just plotting a (fictional) murder. I also had to plan out a realistic road trip that covered every single state and territory, create ten themed cases within that trip, and try and pack in as many Australian motifs and icons as I could. I created a very strict scaffolding for the whole book to fit in. Essentially one whole narrative, containing ten cases, each of which contain ten puzzles. They all had to flow together but also stand-alone. I was very grateful for all that planning work when it came to writing the story and creating the puzzles.

4. What was the process like—creating not only the stories but also the puzzles, and fitting everything together? What were the challenges, and high points? And did you work closely with editors from the start or create it all and then submit it for editing?

Once I finished all that plotting, all I had to do was to weave it together into a narrative that was interesting, made sense, and tied in with the 100 puzzles that I also then had to create and illustrate. Easy, right? 🙂 I had previously created a first chapter and outline for the book proposal, which was a great foundation to start from when it got the green light. With a pretty tight turn-around, I worked every single day without a break for about 5 months. I tried to keep up with creating the puzzles alongside the story as I wrote it, which meant I didn’t feel as overwhelmed by the work to come.

I’d say the biggest challenge was creating a good variety of puzzles that also fit into the story. I also didn’t do myself any favours by writing it in second person! Or by making sure the protagonist (you) and the antagonist (X) were free of any gender indicators. I wanted to make sure that ‘you’ were always you the reader. No only did I have to think about the actions of ‘you’ the character, but also everyone else’s reactions to them. Oh what a tangled web I wove for myself…

The upshot of all the previous planning is that I didn’t need a structural edit. After I handed in the manuscript, we went straight to a copy edit, which was such an incredibly joyful process. My brilliant editor picked up on so many things I hadn’t thought of, and whipped my timeline into shape. After that, Penguin brought in someone to check the puzzles, and then we did a couple of proofreads, and a little bit of revision on the layout, and we were done. There were way fewer tears than I expected with a project of this complexity!

Typing ‘The End’ was certainly a highpoint! I had taken myself away on a mini retreat to Ballarat, while my partner was there working on an exhibition. While he was off working hard, I sat on the B&B couch, drank copious amounts of tea and wrote for two days straight. Finishing a project is always satisfying, but this one felt particularly so! I loved every minute of working on it, but there were certainly times I wondered if I could pull it off.

5. Browsing in bookshops after I picked up my copy of your book, I noticed that there are quite a few popular titles around that combine mystery and puzzle types (such as Murdle etc). How do you think your book fits into that genre, and how does it differ from them?

Yes, Murdle is a real phenomenon isn’t it! My hope is that this book will capture that puzzle audience, and then hook them in with a story too. I think a big difference is that A Puzzling Pursuit is very narrative focused. Yes, the text carries you from puzzle to puzzle, but it’s not its only purpose. There’s a rollicking adventure in there, with side quests, drama, and hopefully plenty of humour. I intentionally created the book to appeal to a range of readers: the ones who are only there for the puzzles, those who would rather get involved in the story, and those who are in it for the whole experience! I hope everyone finds it a happy distraction.

6.I know it might be a bit early to ask—but I’ll ask it anyway 😊 What has been the response of readers to your book?

It’s a tiny bit early! 😁 Most of the responses have been ‘look I found it in a bookshop!’, with accompanying face-out photo which is always so exciting! Not many people have had the chance to start it yet, let alone finish it. Though I have already received my first ‘correction’ – and it probably won’t be the last. The great thing about puzzle people is their attention to detail!

7. Are you planning to write more in this genre? And what else are you working on?

I would love to create more books like this! I’m playing with a couple of puzzle book ideas, including a possible sequel to A Puzzling Pursuit. But I’m also diving back into kids’ books with a middle grade novel I’ve been working on for a while. I’m on the home stretch, so having a great time writing the final scenes full of drama – and sea monsters! There’s a good chance I’ll sneak a few puzzles in there too. 🙂

Leave a comment Posted on Authors, Book talk, Creative life, creative process, Interviews, middle grade fiction

Lovely interview on Brenton Cullen’s blog

I’m delighted to say that I was interviewed by fellow writer Brenton Cullen on his blog, about Bold Ben Hall, research, writing about the past, and quite a few other things. Really enjoyed the interview, hope you do so too!

Here’s a short extract:

1. Congratulations on your latest fantastic historical novel Bold Ben Hall! What prompted you to write this book? 

SM: Thank you, Brenton! Ever since I was a kid I have always been fascinated by the bushranger era, and the larger than life characters who inhabited it, especially those with an interesting backstory, like Ned Kelly (who features in two of my earlier novels, The Hunt for Ned Kelly and Ned Kelly’s Secret) and Ben Hall.

Both men were not ‘common criminals’ but complex figures with both ‘the dark and the bright’ in them (to quote something Ned Kelly once said). And it struck me that I could tell the story of Ben Hall in a way that would highlight that, through the differing viewpoints of two young people of his time.

You can read the whole interview here.

Leave a comment Posted on A Secret Garden in Paris, adult fiction, audio, Interviews, Reviews

Review and interview A Secret Garden in Paris

A couple of weeks ago, Barbie Robinson from Living Arts Canberra did an interview with me about A Secret Garden in Paris–an interview I thoroughly enjoyed, her questions were so interesting! It’s now up online, as is her lovely review of the book.

Here’s a short extract from the review:

This book is a complete delight. The author carries us with her characters through their trammels and triumphs, and provides hopeful and happy endings (thank you!). There is nothing trite about this story, though. We are ever conscious that fixing things requires work, intention and sweat playing equal roles in each of these stories and the correlation to our own reality is very clear.

You can read the whole review, and listen to the interview, here.

Leave a comment Posted on adult fiction, announcements, Book talk, forthcoming books, Interviews, Paris Cooking School

Ahead of the imminent release of The Paris Cooking School in the US and Canada…

The Paris Cooking School comes out on August 6–not long to wait!–in the US and Canada, published by Alcove Press, and in the lead up to that, and to whet your appetite, there’s a great ‘Take Five’ interview with me on Writer Unboxed, the fabulous, award-winning US-based international writing blog. Here’s a short extract:

Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?

SM: My book, The Paris Cooking School (written under the pen-name of Sophie Beaumont) is an adult contemporary novel set, you guessed it, in Paris 😊 It features three main characters, Kate Evans, Gabi Picabea and Sylvie Morel, who are all at crossroads in their lives. Gabi and Kate have both come for the month-long course at Sylvie’s Paris Cooking School, after major crises in their lives—in Kate’s case, a bitter marriage breakup, in Gabi’s case a crippling creative block. Meanwhile, Sylvie is facing a worrying online harassment campaign targeting her business, and trouble from her commitment-shy lover Claude. What the three women find during that extraordinary April in Paris will change the course of their lives—and bring new love, too. Set against a gorgeous background of Paris in spring, and studded with delicious references to French food, it’s a novel that Australian readers have already taken to their hearts, and which I hope North American readers will just as much! The book comes out in the US and Canada on August 6, published by lovely Alcove Press.

You can read all the interview here.

Leave a comment Posted on adult fiction, announcements, Book talk, Creative life, France, Interviews, Paris Cooking School

Bilingual interview on Matilda Marseillaise

I was interviewed recently for the fabulous bilingual blog, Matilda Marseillaise, and the interview has now been published, in both French and English (I spoke to Matilda in French and she translated back into English). Centering on The Paris Cooking School and its influences, it also focuses on my background and experiences, the creative process, and Paris itself. Here’s a short extract:

The book has three narratives, you might say, because the book tells the stories of the three main characters. Did you write them in the order we read them? Did you write separating the chapters of each character’s story?

No, I wrote it chronologically. So I knew I wanted to write one chapter from Gaby’s point of view and then one chapter from Sylvie’s point of view, and one chapter from Kate’s point of view.

And then, at the beginning, so in the first chapter, you’re introduced to the 3 characters, they’re in the same chapter, but then they each have a chapter until the end when they all come back together. I always write chronologically. I know there are writers who write a chapter here, a chapter there and then they put it all together. But I can’t.

I can’t because my experience is almost like watching a film and it has to unfold chronologically. I can’t simply make a flash here, a flash there and then put them together to make an image. I have to follow the story and so I say, OK, today I’m going to write the chapter from Gaby’s or Kate’s point of view and that’s it, that’s where it’s going to happen.

Often what I do is, I’ll go for a little 5-minute walk or something. It’s just to start the first paragraph of the chapter I’m going to write that day and then there it is, so Gaby does this, or Kate does that. I even talk to myself about everything. It’s a good thing there aren’t too many people passing by, otherwise they’d think I’d lost my mind!

You can read the whole interview here.

Leave a comment Posted on adult fiction, Interviews, New books, Paris Cooking School

Great new interview re The Paris Cooking School

There’s a really nice interview with me on writer and reviewer Cindy L Spear’s blog, about The Paris Cooking School, writing, food, and other matters! I really enjoyed doing it, her questions were really interesting. Here’s a short extract:

What inspired you to write The Paris Cooking School?

Paris itself! I love the city and have been there multiple times, several members of my family live there, plus I had the great good luck to be awarded a writer’s residency there for 6 months some years ago, so I really got to know it well. Also, of course, another inspiration is the food I grew up with as I’m from a French background (though we are from south-west France, not Paris). I loved putting my characters in the midst of this amazing city, discovering more about French food culture, and history, walking all over Paris—and falling in love.

You can read the whole interview here.

Leave a comment Posted on Book talk, creative process, Culture, Interviews, Translation

How books get translated

Along with several other writers and literary professionals, I was interviewed recently by writer and journalist Thuy On for Arts Hub, about how Australian books get translated, and the article, which is very interesting, has now been published. You can find it here.

(Below is a pic which illustrates some of what I say regarding translation: it’s the five different editions of Three Wishes, a novel I wrote under the pen-name of Isabelle Merlin. From the top, left, you can see the original Australian edition, the Indonesian one, Polish one, and below them, the German edition and the French edition. )

Leave a comment Posted on Authors, Book talk, Interviews, launches, Publishing business, YA fiction

The new Shalott: an interview with Felicity Pulman

Today I’m delighted to be bringing you an interview with award-winning writer Felicity Pulman, who has embarked on a wonderful new project: republishing her popular young adult historical fantasy trilogy, Shalott, with new titles, new material and in new formats. The first book, Shalott: Into the Unknown, has just been released, and the other two Shalott: Dangerous Magic, and Shalott: End Play, will be published in September and November respectively.

Congratulations, Felicity! Why did you decide to republish the Shalott trilogy?

I wrote the first novel not realising there was more to come – and it was only when I got to the third novel that I understood what Callie’s quest was really all about. Rewriting and republishing the trilogy was my chance to ‘get it right’; to blend in a wonderful mix of magic and technology, and to seed in the ‘clues’ that there was much more to the teenagers’ quest than they first realised. It was also my chance to bring the books up to date for a new generation of readers, while introducing them to the timeless legend of King Arthur and his knights, and the mysterious and beautiful poem, The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

The original series came out in the early 2000s. You’ve changed the titles, but was there anything you decided to change within the stories themselves? And did you add any new material?

Basically the story remains the same, although I’ve strengthened the magical aspect, particularly from the points of view of Nimue and Morgan le Fay. Nimue’s magic helps to bring the teenagers to Camelot in order to thwart Morgan’s plans to divide the court through the love affair between Guinevere and Lancelot. But Morgan will stop at nothing to eliminate anything that gets in the way of her ambition for Mordred – and the teenagers are caught in the crossfire. I was also able to update the books to reflect society as we know it today in terms of hot button topics for teenagers, new technology, and even the deadly virus! A LOT has changed over the past twenty years.

Tell us about the process you went through in order to get the books back into print – what were the challenges? And discoveries?

I worked on an already formatted version while rewriting the novels, which caused all sorts of problems during editing and proof-reading. With hindsight I’d probably have been better off retyping all three novels! As a technotwit I knew I’d be better off asking for help rather than trying to navigate the self-publishing process on my own.  Joel Naoum from Critical Mass Services has been a great help to me, finding editors, designers and printers, acting as a sounding board, and generally shepherding me through the whole publishing process. What I discovered was just how many decisions one has to make along the journey!

As a self-publisher this time, how are you promoting and publicising the books?

This is still a WIP.  I’ve updated my website; I’m posting on facebook and other platforms, and also spreading the word via the various societies and writing organisations to which I belong. I need to make much more use of social media than I do, and I’m working on that, plus I’m also considering paying for some advertising. Friends like you have been really helpful with giving me ‘air time’ on your own platforms as well – much appreciated!  Of course I always talk about my books at my workshops and author talks, with the age of the audience determining which books I mention. I’ll be canvassing local bookshops with copies of the trilogy, and also sending out press releases to local and any other media that I hope might be interested. Meantime I’m open to suggestions from everyone!

What advice would you have for other authors thinking of republishing their out-of- print titles? 

 It’s hard work but certainly worthwhile if you want to breathe new life into your books, especially if you’re technosavvy. But buyer beware: go with a reputable print company and make sure your books are readily available for purchase (as mine are through amazon and various other outlets.) If you’re outsourcing the publishing process, as I have, it can be expensive, and unless the book suddenly takes off for some reason you should realise that you’re unlikely to make any sort of profit, or even recoup your expenses.

Another of your novels is going to get a new lease of life, I believe, with your very first novel, Ghost Boy, optioned by a film production company. Can you tell us about that?

Ghost Boy is my most successful book to date, particularly as it now forms the basis of the very popular Ghost Boy tour up at the Quarantine Station in Manly, where part of the novel is set. The QS itself is a fabulous site – very cinematic, very historic, and very creepy, and students studying my novel find that the book really comes alive when they can walk in the footsteps of my characters. The film option was taken out several years ago, but I’ve now signed an option for the sale of my book, which means we’ve come one step closer to seeing my novel (and maybe its unpublished sequel: The Curse of the Quarantine Station) turned into a movie. Exciting – but I must admit I’m finding it very hard to let go!

Where you can buy Shalott: Into the Unknown, first volume of Felicity’s republished Shalott trilogy:

Aus: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B097KYVRLS

USA: www.amazon.com/dp/B097KYVRLS

UK: www.amazon.com.uk/dp/B097KYVRLS