Toni Jordan chats with Jessica Au about her new book,
Tell us about writing
After I finished Fall Girl, I had no idea whatsoever. Nothing. Unlike many writers I know, I find ideas the hardest part of the process. My publisher had this photo in his files; he was in love with it, he’d kept it for years hoping one day he’d publish a book with it on the jacket. He sent it to me in the hope that it’d trigger something. It took about a year, but eventually it did.
Have you ever lied about having read a book?
No, because once I started, I’d never be able to stop. The holes in my reading life are gaping. I’ve never read To Kill a Mockingbird, Cloudstreet, The Man who Loved Children, Voss, Rebecca, Catcher in the Rye, One Hundred Years of Solitude … it goes on and on. What I need is a period of incarceration (for a crime I did not commit) in a prison with a good library.
Tell us about the first time you ever saw one of your books in a bookshop.
In 2008. I wasn’t expecting it right then - it must have been an efficient bookstore that unpacked the boxes early. I hysterically called my husband from the footpath in front of the store and didn’t move until he came home from work and brought the camera.
What’s a question you’d like to be asked in interviews? (And your answer to it?)
Are you sure you’re actually the author and not a model hired to impersonate the author?
(Answer: Oh yes. I’m sure.)
What’s the last book you loved, and why?
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Just pure unadulterated genius. Oh man, that’s demoralising.
Nine Days
A book by Booki.sh
