Maggie: I live in a fairly remote (for a one time New Yorker!) part of Lake Macquarie NSW (Australia). There’s a Bob Dylan song that goes "I wish I was…on some Australian mountain range". That’s it. Lots of forest/bush, lots of birds, lots of leeches (at the moment since it keeps raining), rainforest, large moss covered rocks, and even a few caves. It’s kind of magical. Especially for children – I have three of them -- aged 9, 7, and 4 and they certainly define my world. In addition to looking after them I’m a writer, an Information Manager for Orica (I work in the R&D dept doing all kinds of left brain stuff), a wife, and also run The Compulsive Reader and Preschool Entertainment websites.

Have you always been a writer and if not, what did you do before and what got you started on writing?

Maggie: I’ve always been a writer. It’s one of those things that seemed to happen organically from childhood – the decision to commit to a life in the arts and to use language as my key means of doing that.

I’m sure it’s tied up with my love of reading, which again, began very early and carried me through childhood. But there have certainly been times where I’ve hedged my bets (still doing it), doubted my talents (as all artists do), and allowed my left brain to dominate. For me a balance is important. If I spend too much time lost in the world of language, my writing suffers from insularity and obscurity.

If I spend too much time focused on syntax, numerics and making a living, my writing doesn’t happen with the kind of regularity and open creativity I need to keep myself authentically involved (ie it becomes little more than a self-indulgent hobby done when all the more "important" things are finished). So I have had to work at getting that balance right – not always easy when there are so many conflicting pulls for attention. But that’s the modern world. I’m generally fairly comfortable with the multiple roles and try to play them off one another. For example, my next book is set in the corporate world…

Maggie: My first novel, Sleep Before Evening, is being released by BeWrite Books on the 24^th of July, and I’ve been spending some time doing publicity work for that – guest blogging, interviews, booking signings, and so on.

Last year my first poetry book, Quark Soup, was released by Picaro Press, and prior to that, I had a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment published by Mountain Mist Productions. Those are my three full length publications.

I’ve also been involved in a number of book length compilations, including a poetry book done with Carolyn Howard-Johnson last year titled Cherished Pulse, The Audience Review, Global Delights: A feast of stories and poetry and recipes, numerous Roland Robinson Literary award publications, a few Skive Magazine compilations, and too many literary magazines/online journals, parenting magazines to list.

Considering my workload, I’m fairly prolific – I’ve always got some project on the go and am always submitting poetry, fiction, articles and reviews to somewhere—a journal, magazine, competition or invited blog – I’m a serendipitous writer—if I come across something interesting I’ll usually schedule the work in.

Maggie:  I’ve just been reading a book for writers which suggests that it’s best to stick to one genre for reader recognition, but I’m afraid I’m a jill of all trades—I write across genres, and find that different types of writing demand different things from me, so that I can relax from one genre by doing something in another.

The variety seems to suit my character. Having said that, when I write fiction, it’s almost always literary fiction. I don’t do other fiction genres well, primarily because I tend not to read other fiction genres. With poetry, my work is probably reasonably recognisable from one poem to the other – I don’t write very experimentally or academically, nor do I write sweetly – my work is somewhere in between – challenging emotively, but not syntactically.

For nonfiction, I’ll write about almost anything that interests me – as a parent, I’m as comfortable writing about feeding or educating young children (and I do regular articles on topics like that for a print magazine called Kidz on the Coast), as I am on writing about the polemics of literary analysis. That’s a long answer to a simple question!

Maggie: Inspiration is everywhere – in my children, in an argument I might have at home, in a book I’ve read – I even began scribbling a poem in a notebook while waiting for my boys to finish a holiday science program – the presenter was making liquid nitrogen ice-cream and the fog was flowing over the top of the cream beaker into the room—a lovely scene that got me thinking. One of my most regular sources of poetic inspiration has been New Scientist Magazine, which I borrow from the ‘office’.

I love the way it uses evocative language to describe esoteric science. I find it quite stimulating, though of course the end poems are more about psychology than about science. Still, it’s a door opener. I’m afraid I’ll take inspiration from wherever it comes, and often at the worst possible moments. I remember once I was standing in the midst of a car wreck as I’d just been hit by a truck, and the postie came up, asked me if I was okay, and then handed me a package.

I knew immediately it was a publisher’s rejection, and even while I was taking the other car’s licence and trying to work out if my car was still driveable, I was composing in my head ‘’It was the worst possible moment. I was standing in the midst of glass and metal…". I later sold the article (but not for enough to cover my insurance excess…).

Maggie: I didn’t think this when I began writing the book, but in many ways, Sleep Before Evening is the PhD thesis I was trying to write at Oxford. One of the (many J ) criticisms my supervisor (Chris Butler – who I believe is still at Christ Church—I may well send a copy to him just for fun) levelled at me was that I had a tendency to use too many metaphors.

Of course he was right – I needed the language of poetry, not the language of academia, to say the things I wanted to say—arguments about language and its limits (the title of my thesis was "the articulation of silence"), about the way we create, and convey meaning, and about the enduring power of art. These were the underlying issues which began the novel.

I was very much inspired by the work of philosopher Derek Parfit, in particular, his book Reasons and Persons which I found extraordinarily beautiful and lucid (a book I just found on my bookshelf, as my husband did his first degree in Philosophy). In fact, one of my characters was very loosely modelled on Parfit.

Like many first novels, I began the work a long time ago, and it is set in a real time and place that was fairly intense for me. That isn’t to say it’s autobiographical, but I did take a lot of what was happening to me in that specific setting as the plotline in the book. It’s a coming of age story involving a seventeen year old girl who has just lost her grandfather, who she cleaved to and modelled herself on.

There are many themes running through the book, all of which were important to me as a person, not just a writer – fatherlessness (I loved Emily Ballou’s Fatherlands, and there are a few parallels), Generation X (the post-divorce, post-hippy perspective), the left brain rationality of chess, the right brain chaos of post-modern art, music (classical, blues, rock and roll), drugs, the beach and ever present waves/ocean, mother/daughter, illness and wellness. Love, death – you know – the whole kit and caboodle. I didn’t want to miss anything!

I’ve been told it’s a fairly simple straightforward narrative for all the brewhaha though, which I’m glad of.

Maggie: The quick answer to that is no – I never run out of ideas or suffer from writers’ block. But having said that (I’m not a good one for quick answers), I do suffer and have suffered more strongly in the past than now, from insecurity, and from a lack of time (but who doesn’t).

So the combination has often meant a lower output of work than I’d like. While I was at Oxford, I tended to write very little creative work – I was busy trying hard to be analytical, which wasn’t always that easy for me, and it ended up with me giving up creative writing (I still wrote lots of nonfiction) for a while. But it came back – especially after the birth of my first child, the experience of which was unbelievably, surprisingly, transformative. It freed me from my insecurity, and opened the floodgates.

Unfortunately it also, ironically, limited my time dramatically (and logo rhythmically when my 2 other children were born). I try not to worry about it though. You’ve just got to make time – find a few minutes if that’s all, and move forward. I’m surprised at what I’m able to accomplish – no one really cares how long it takes you – they only see output.

Maggie: Almost accidentally, I’ve managed to carve myself a niche with The Compulsive Reader – I really am a compulsive when it comes to books – so I’ve been interacting with my target market over the last six years. They’re my first point of promotion. In addition to that, and to the regular writing and publishing of my work I’ve done, I have pulled together a kind of virtual tour – visiting literary blogs, guest reviewing, conferences and doing radio shows – it’s coming together really well. I’m also just starting a new radio show of my own at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/compulsivereader.

The Compulsive Reader radio show will feature reviews, author interviews, readings, and book talk (kind of like an audio blog), and is going to be an extension of what we do at The Compulsive Reader. I’m looking forward to playing with multimedia a little.

The target market for Sleep and other books of mine is always global, and I’m a little physically limited, not just by my remote-ish location, but by the fact that I have to be here for my children – they’re just too young for me to go jetting off on worldwide book tours, so using the Internet is a great way to capture a much wider audience.

But of course there’s no substitute for doing a live reading, chatting eye to eye, or hand on hand, so I will be launching the book at Angus & Robertson in Newcastle (date to be set), and doing some signings later in the year at Morisset and Toronto.

My mother, who is based in Virginia (USA) is friends with someone who runs the Virginia Festival of the Book, and she is trying to get me a trip there (her ulterior motive is to get me to visit her, since she doesn’t fly) – so it’s a possibility that I may have one trip to the US – but nothing is set yet.

Maggie: But of course! You need to. Mine is The Compulsive Reader (http://www.compulsivereader.com/html) and it was specifically designed to bring together book lovers – particularly those, like me, who love literary fiction, but we’ve got lots of exceptional reviewers with tastes that aren’t identical to mine, so there is a lot of variety, and even a section on film reviews (compulsive viewing), music reviews (compulsive listening), and other genres (even chess books – who am I to deny my reviewers or readers!).

Anyone who loves books should come and visit, as the focus is very much on quality, rather than fame/publisher or promotional power. Plus, and of course this is the real, material inspiration, we do lots (and lots) of book giveaways!

Maggie: Routine? Can’t do it. My life is too unpredictable.

I write every day. I try to work on the longer term novel every day, but it doesn’t always happen. Between school holidays, sick children, power outages (especially lately), visitors, school events, and so on, there are days I just have to go with the flow and not stress too much about what I can’t accomplish. But I always manage to write something every day.

I have a very strong (Yankee) work ethic, so I get itchy if I’m not accomplishing something from both the short term list (love ticking those boxes) and the longer term list, and I’m really always at it. But as far as writing a certain number of words per day, or having specific times in which that happens, I can’t do that – it would only cause emotional turmoil for those I love (including myself!).

I don’t need ideal conditions to work (I never get them!), so I can write on a dog eared pad while my daughter plays at the playground or has a swimming or ballet lesson. I can knock up a poem while the boys are watching football in the evening. I can even write a review on the back of promotional material by candlelight during a blackout. Carpe diem. It’s my only secret!

Maggie: Books are my biggest source of learning. In a formal sense, I review a lot of books for writers and they is always something instructive.

I just did Penny Sansevieri’s Red Hot Internet Publicity, and that was full of exceptional and innovative ideas for promoting my book (very timely). I’ve read books on plotting, on characterisation, on the writing career, even on living the creative life (I’m reading Maisel’s book now, have all broadened my perspective and helped me grow as a writer.

I also do a lot of online and in-person networking (I’m a member of the Hunter Writer’s Group) and it helps to hear what others are doing and what does, and doesn’t work. I get to interview a lot of writers, which also helps, but probably the biggest source of learning for me is in reading the best of what others are doing in my genres. I’m always reading poetry and fiction, and great writers tend to keep the synopses firing. They expand the limits of what’s possible. The more I read the more I realise just what words can do.

Maggie: In fine bookshops everywhere! Amazon.com

In Australia the book will be available from:

I’m more than happy to send out autographed book plates to anyone who wants one – just get your readers to email me directly with their address, and I’ll post an autograph (I can even customise it! Sleep makes the perfect Christmas gift for a book lover)

Maggie: I now have a mandate to finish novel 2, provisionally titled Black Cow.

I’m also working on another poetry book, and would like to finally finish The Literary Lunch – a nonfiction literary cookbook I started some years ago, after being inspired by a book party for The Joyce of Cooking.

Then there’s novel 3, a book about my grandmother, provisionally titled "Eva’s Song". Each one gets a little more complex, with multiple viewpoints and time shifts, so I don’t expect anything to be done quickly (at least until the kids are in college – then who knows). That’s probably as long term as I can manage right now.