Our authors are the heart of Ventura - without them we wouldn’t have the books we do! But what makes them tick? What lies behind their passion for literature? To answer these sought after questions, we’re bringing you the Five Questions With series to give you a little more insight into who lies behind the words you’re reading.
Award-winning Melbourne author Christine Bell explores female agency, social inequality and the far reaching impact of mental illness in her meticulously researched historical fiction debut novel, No Small Shame, out today 1 April. She has written extensively for children and young adults across her career, including 35 short fiction titles published for children. No Small Shame is her first published adult historical novel. Good Reading selected Christine as their March featured author, and chatted with her about the adventure of writing a first novel, and the transition from writing for children to adults.
No Small Shame is your first novel. What were some of the challenges in the transition from writing short fiction to longform? For example, did you have to use more discipline in your writing habits? Keep better track of characters and the surrounding story?
The novel spans seven years and two continents with a few shifts of location throughout. So, there were a lot of settings to establish and new characters to introduce. I wish I’d known at the start to chart the ages of my characters over the passing years. That got tricky trying to sort later. And I didn’t know that I should be keeping detailed spreadsheets of facts, and where I found them, research contacts, a bibliography and good records of my many reference materials, etc. After upgrading to a new computer, I lost all my web bookmarks, which resulted in a lot of re-treading when it came time to double-check facts. The story was written very organically, and I must’ve ended up with almost as many discarded words as what remained in the finished book. So, it was a huge learning curve going from short fiction to an epic novel, and a big part of why it took so long. The plot of my current work-in-progress is a lot simpler and covers a much shorter time period.
You’ve also written a fair bit for children and young adult readers. What were the main differences for you between writing for a younger audience and adults?
Writing for children insists you keep to the point, don’t waffle on or be disingenuous. You have to work within certain boundaries in regard to language and content. I found it hard having to constrain my writing as I often tend to write challenging characters and situations. My most recent YA manuscript needed considerable re-working as it was considered too harsh for contemporary young adult readers, though I was told equally it was very authentic to place and time. I rewrote the entire novel as I was told readers wouldn’t have the patience for my more complicated syntax and less contemporary voice. Personally, I think that opinion sells young adult readers short. The shift for me really came because I wanted to start exploring adult, most particularly women’s issues. Their challenges and motivations and how society and cultural expectations changed during the early 20th century and how women fought to gain agency.
No Small Shame is set in both Scotland and Australia - what drew you to these two settings?
The idea for the novel came while researching my family history. In 1913, my great-grandparents emigrated from the tiny pit village of Bothwellhaugh in Scotland to the new State-owned coal town of Wonthaggi in Victoria. While I was visiting the State Coal Mine museum, a little voice kept saying, ‘there’s a story here’. And what a great setting! Instead of writing the novel I’d begun a few months earlier, I found myself researching the long-demolished village of Bothwellhaugh and pre-WW1 steam ship journeys to Australia. Then my main character, Mary, turned up and kept talking until I had to give away the other novel and write her story.
What techniques do you use to help you evoke a sense of place in your writing? Do you visit the setting then take photos to look at?
I initially did a lot of online and book research for my settings in No Small Shame. I was fortunate to be put in touch with an ex-Bothwellhaugh miner. We then had an ongoing correspondence where he answered my most basic of questions, resulting in an authenticity of detail in the novel that I couldn’t have hoped to make up. In the years just prior to Bothwellhaugh being demolished, one of the miners began to take home movie footage of the village and his fellow residents. The tenement rows and surrounding buildings and landscape looked much the same as they had fifty years previously – in the time of my characters – so the film really informed on the setting and life in the village. In 2012 I travelled to Scotland and was able to obtain invaluable maps, images and valuable archival material through meetings with the Motherwell Heritage Centre and the park ranger of the Strathclyde Country Park, which was built over the site of the former village. The real-life stories and geographical information provided by the ranger were gold. Walking the ground also gave me a real feel and insight as to the distances between nearby towns, the river and landscape that helped bring the narrative to life.
What were some surprising things you discovered while researching No Small Shame?
Though I’ve long known of the effects of shellshock and how little the condition was acknowledged in the early days after WW1, I was surprised to learn just how many men were left damaged or failed to resume their former lives. And how little they were supported by the Government when they came home. Often roles and expectations changed within families and wives and sisters were left to care for and advocate on their soldiers’ behalf. The deep Catholic/Protestant divide in Australia during WW1, particularly over the issue of conscription was a revelation. The two religions took opposing sides and the fight was bitter. The attitudes to me were shocking at a time when there was so much horror in the world.
Your next novel is set in France. Can you give us a little teaser as to what it’s about?
I can’t give away too much yet. But the novel is set in the year directly after the First World War and tells the story of a young AIF soldier who elects to stay on in France, the French girl he loves, and the traumatic reason he refuses to go home.
No Small Shame by Christine Bell is published by Ventura Press.