Writers on Wednesday: Rowena Holloway
Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week, I'm chatting with Adelaide-based debut author Rowena Holloway. Welcome Rowena!
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Tell us a bit about yourself ...
I’m an Adelaide
writer of short stories and novels. It took me a while to be able to claim the
title of writer. When I left school I apprenticed as a hairdresser, then
decided to move into a more corporate world and studied marketing and business.
I gained a clutch of degrees, decided the corporate world was not for me
(apparently, I’m ‘too nice’) and became a tenured lecturer. All of this
convinced me that the fictional world is preferable. So after years of dreaming
about it, I finally took the plunge and committed to becoming a published
author. Of course, I did everything I later learned not to do (like quitting my
day job), but I’m happiest when writing.
Tell us about your most recently
published book?
Pieces of
a Lie has just been released and I have to
admit it’s exhilarating to see it out in the world. Pieces of a Lie explores my favourite themes of fractured families
and a killer secret.
Mina Everton is the daughter of an
embezzler. Though he disappeared with the cash years ago, that one fact still overshadows
her life. Then she finds his prized fob watch in a local junk store. Lincoln
Drummond is investigating a series of robberies. Simple. Until he meets Mina,
who gets to him in ways he’s never faced before, and it soon becomes clear the
truth behind the robberies is far from simple. Mina’s search for her father
draws her into the sinister underbelly of the suburbs and a web of deceit
twelve years in the making. Despite her feelings for Drummond, Mina can’t bring
herself to trust him. And the closer she gets to her father, the more she
looks, and acts, like a suspect. To expose the truth, she must choose—destroy
herself or the only man who believes in her… Sometimes love isn't enough.
Tell us about the first time you were
published?
This is my first
published novel and I published many papers as an academic, but nothing
compares to the very first time I had a short story published. I’d been sending
short stories out and while most of them never got a mention, the odd prize
would turn up at my door – usually a certificate and a letter of
congratulations. But the first piece I had published was something I’d written
for one of my writing groups (I was once a writing group groupie!). I submitted
it to one of the small FAW competitions, not expecting anything, and it won
first prize. I thought I had just been lucky due to a lack of competition (I’m
full of confidence like that), but for the encouragement of a friend I
submitted it for consideration for the Melbourne Books’ 2011 Anthology
of Award Winning Australian Writing. And they picked it for inclusion! Cue
walking on air—until the next rejection.
As a writer, what has been your proudest
achievement so far?
Well, I’d have
to say the previous experience ranks pretty high, but my proudest moment to
date was when I opened the first digital proof of my novel Pieces of a Lie. It downloads as a virtual book and as I flicked
through the pages checking for formatting and other issues I remember thinking
that if I never achieved anything else in my life, I’d be satisfied. Of course,
that lasted for about a day and now, like an addict, I can’t wait for that
feeling when I see the digital proof of my next book. And then there was that
day I opened the box with my first print proofs and saw the printed cover—there
might have been a bit of kitchen dancing involved.
What books or writing projects are you
currently working on, if anything?
I’m in the
throes of finalising my next book, All
That’s Left Unsaid ready to publish in March next year. Once more I explore
the themes of fractured families and secrets that could get the heroine killed.
This one is set in my favourite holiday destination—Italy. There’s also a sexy
Italian love interest (I confess to a weakness for tall, dark and handsome). It
is a little softer than Pieces of a Lie,
but still a killer read. I’m also most of the way through my third novel, set
in London, which explores ambition and friendship amidst death and family
secrets.
Which do you prefer? eBooks or Paper
Books? Why?
Nothing compares
to the smell of a freshly minted paper book. There is a reverence to opening
the cover and not wanting to mark it in any way, but also a delicious need to
get into the story. I don’t think I shall ever lose the joy of a paperback.
Recently, I’ve been converted to the convenience of ebooks. Partly it’s because
I’m now so busy writing during the day that I only get time to read at night—something
my partner despairs of, so the backlit screen contributes to marital harmony!
They also save space and allow me to buy as many books as I like without
comment from said partner. So the e-reader solves a lot of problems.
Indie Publishing, or Traditional
Publishing?
Both. Indie
publishing is wonderfully liberating, but also a great responsibility. I’m
still building a dependable team and several times during the process would
have happily handed it all over to a sympathetic publisher, though I have
witnessed the constraints some authors experience with traditional publishing.
Now that I’ve experienced how much is involved in going
Indie, I have a new appreciation for the time and economic investment
traditional publishers give their authors.
Aside from your own books, of course,
what is one book that you feel everybody should read?
One book? Umm … I’d
say everybody should read their favourite novel by their most admired author as
many times as they like and then study it. Mine is currently Maggie O’Farrrel’s
The Hand That First Held Mine. The
emotion she can elicit with a few words is incredible, and how she builds her
novels is a real masterclass on structuring. My copy of THFHM is filled with
colour-coded Post-it notes.
As a go-to book
for support and inspiration I often turn to Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write (1938). It’s not a
‘how to’ as much as a ‘why you must’. She fills it with anecdotes of her
students and how they overcame their various struggles to find their unique
writing voice. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with rules for
writing, I find this book immensely liberating, which is probably ironic when
you consider the relative status of women in 1938. As an aside, what is most
surprising is that the issues she covers are not so very different from today.
For example, she has a chapter entitled ‘Why Women Who Do Too Much Housework
Should Neglect it for Their Writing.’ Words to live by, I say!
Finally … is there anything you would
like to say to your readers in Adelaide, Australia?
Hello Adelaide! Except
for that time when my parents whisked the family back to England for a year, I’ve
lived here all my life and I love it. I’m always discovering new things,
finding new friends and what I appreciate most about Adelaide is that once you
start looking there are creative people everywhere.
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