I Think That You Can

The Thing That Most Attracts Me To Historical Fiction Is Taking The Factual Record As Far As It Is Known, Using That As Scaffolding, And Then Letting Imagination Build The Structure That Fills In Those Things We Can Never Find Out For Sure.

I Was A News Reporter For 16 Years, Seven Of Them A Foreign Correspondent In The Middle East, Africa And The Balkans. Perhaps The Most Useful Equipment I Acquired In That Time Is A Lack Of Preciousness About The Act Of Writing. A Reporter Must Write. There Must Be A Story. The 'mot Juste' Unarriving? Tell That To Your Desk.

Write What You Know. Every Guide For The Aspiring Author Advises This. Because I Live In A Long-settled Rural Place, I Know Certain Things. I Know The Feel Of A Newborn Lamb's Damp, Tight-curled Fleece And The Sharp Sound A Well-bucket Chain Makes As It Scrapes On Stone. But More Than These Material Things, I Know The Feelings That Flourish In Small Communities. And I Know Other Kinds Of Emotional Truths That I Believe Apply Across The Centuries.

Men Can Absent Themselves From Real Life For Their Art More Easily. Women Are Anchored Into The Quotidian Business Of Getting Food On The Table, Making Sure Everybody's Socks Match, The Soccer Gear Is Ready. I Admire Idealists, But They're Usually Enabled By Someone Who Holds The Tether On Their Balloon, Who Pays The Bills And Sweeps Up After Them.

I Am Not Part Of That Earlier Australian Generation Who Set Off On A Deliberate Search For Fame And Fortune In Distant Lands. My Generation Was The First That Didn't Need To. By The 1980's When I Left Home, Our Culture Had Grown Deep Enough And Wide Enough To Encompass All But The Most Rarefied Of Ambitions.