Everyone, please welcome Dominica to my blog! I recently did an interview with this lovely lady and here it is!Q: So, tell the readers a bit about you.
I currently live in Malaysia and enjoy it as a base for travelling, because it’s a lot cheaper to visit places in Asia for short trips than it was when I lived in Australia, where I was born. But I probably picked up the travel bug when I was a kid, because my parents were from the US and I got to visit the country three times in my youth.
A: My writing background is in screenwriting, and I tended to write more contemporary stuff, despite being more interested in sci-fi and fantasy TV shows and movies. These days I like to combine my sci-fi/fantasy with contemporary settings and call myself a speculative fiction writer.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for your book, Adrift? How did you come up with the name of it?
A: It was and idea that was built out of a few different things. Originally, I wrote a short film screenplay called Cracks. It was meant to be something I could film with a friend of mine, who I wanted to act opposite. He had suggested I play a pirate because I already had a pirate-looking outfit. Then, since I was in a writing competition at the time, and the prompt that came up was “cracks”, my mind somehow went, “I know! A crack in time. This pirate is a time-traveller.” And that was the basic premise. I later developed some more ideas through the competition, which is where I ended up exploring her background and introducing her female lover. And the mermaid. You can thank my friend Sally Bell (also a writer) for that aspect.
My editor named it. I can’t remember what my original title was, just that it was longer than that but basically meant the same thing. Adrift took hold because of the sailing theme. If I get around to turning it into a series, the titles I have in mind for the next two are Careening and Anchored.
Q: What is your favourite colour? (This must be read in a British accent ala Monty Python)
A: Purple! I like all shades, but my favourite is a bold purple. That tends to be the colour I wear.
Q: Do you have any special rituals or quirks when writing? Special foods or drinks? Etc.
A: Not particularly. Sometimes I listened to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, or found other related music to get me in the right mood as I worked on Adrift. And while I was editing, I had “What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor” playing in my head for a while. It’s not quite from the right era I was writing about, but it makes me think of pirates.
Q: What was the easiest part about writing Adrift?
A: Probably a good portion of the book that took place in Washington, DC. In particular, when Jaclyn (my protagonist) visits the National Air and Space Museum, and has lunch at a tavern, with Max Fuentes (a character created by my editor, Jeremiah Murphy, well before I started writing Adrift). Reason being is that, whilst I changed some of the dialogue and edited some of the details out, as well as changed the order of when they visited those places, Jeremiah and I had roleplayed as our characters in Washington and I was writing mostly from my memory of the events.
Q: What was the hardest part?
A: The historical aspect, especially when it came to writing scenes on sailing vessels. I didn’t know that much about sailing prior to writing so it required a lot of research, and feedback from two people who were sailors who’ve sailed on vessels like the ones I was writing about. It was good being able to go back over the novel whilst editing and pick out errors I’d made when describing parts of the vessels myself, though. Or when I realised I used “Sail ho!” in the wrong context (thankfully I fixed that!)
Q: Do you like bacon?
A: I do! But I don’t eat it much because I live in a predominantly Muslim country, which means most restaurants don’t serve it, you can’t order it on pizzas except at one specialty place I’m aware of, and buying it from a supermarket means entering the non-halal section and using a separate checkout.
Q: How long have you been writing, or wanting to write, and when did you actually write your first story?
A: It’s hard to say really. I think most people during some time in their life say to themselves, “I’d like to write a novel one day.” I was like that, but never really had the motivation to write more than maybe 5,000 words when I tried. The main reason I was able to follow through with Adrift was because it seemed like so many people were interested in it.
I’ve been writing on and off since I was a kid, though. I can’t remember my specific age, but my primary school had a whole file full of stories I had written. I think I might’ve even started working on something that was novella length on my primary school’s Mac. It was a pretty long story considering how old I was at the time.
I tend to flit between different creative pursuits so I’ve rarely dedicated most of my time to writing. And even when I do focus on writing, I flit between different kinds. Blog, memoir, screenplays, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, humour, stand-up comedy, lyrics… I even co-wrote a one act stage play once. I suppose I also wrote some in primary school too.
Q: Do you have a favourite character from your book? If so, who and why?
A: I asked my editor this question the other week and he found it hard because I have so many interesting characters. Is it conceited for an author to say that about their own writing, even if they’re using their editor’s words?
I think the character who really ran away and solidified her place in the story was Nikki. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying she’s my favourite, but I had no plans to introduce someone like her in my original outline. She doesn’t enter Adrift until the second half of the novel, but became so integral to the story. A lot of what she does to influence Jaclyn was meant to done by another character, Dick, until I realised it really wasn’t right for his characterisation. So I liked Nikki a lot for the way she took hold of me and made me write her. She was a great character to write.
From a reader’s perspective, going by how I reacted when I read over the novel while editing, I think the strongest reaction I had was to Jaclyn. It might not be easy to connect with her, but she did have me going, “OMG how are you going to get yourself out of this mess?” Because clearly I had forgotten between the time I wrote it and when I edited that part.
Q: Are you working on anything else right now? If so, can you tell us anything about it?
A: I have a few things going but, writing-wise, I don’t know what I’ll finish first. There’s a novel that is very different from Adrift that has sections written, a couple of anthologies, and a short story collection that is a spin-off from Adrift. Those stories centre around the main mermaid who appears in the novel.
But I need to take a little break from writing while I finish editing a music video I filmed in Honolulu last February. As in 2012. The group has been patiently waiting for me to finish working on my novel. They didn’t have to wait so long for the first video I filmed with them! But if anyone wants to watch that, they can find it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsnasDsX_G4
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers of this interview?
A: I’m currently crowdfunding for marketing and related costs for Adrift by selling pre-orders of the book in ebook and paperback format, which will go to people prior to the release date. Anyone who orders through Indiegogo will also get the original screenplays, which I will not be making available anywhere else. If anyone wants to have a look at that, as well as the video of me talking about the book, they can go to http://igg.me/at/adrift.
For people who would like a taste for what they can expect before placing any orders, I made the first chapter available to download from there. You can also read a couple of my mermaid short stories. One is online and readable for free at Plunge Magazine (http://www.plungemagazine.com/issue-one/short-stories/bridging-the-divide), and the other was published in Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Fae-Fatales-Fantasy-Anthology-Edition/dp/0473243172).
If anyone wants to find out more about me they can go to my web site/blog at http://dominica.malcolm.id.au, and they can follow me on Twitter (@dommalcolm) or Facebook (http://www.fb.com/DominicaMalcolm).
Adrift is also listed on Goodreads, for anyone wanting to add it to their “to-read” list (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18168978-adrift).
Lastly, it’s a giveaway! Three more days to enter, here: http://dominica.malcolm.id.au/cover-reveal-for-adrift-crowdfunding-on-indiegogo-and-a-giveaway/
Thank you, Dominica, for taking time to “sit down” with me! It was a pleasure having you on my blog and I wish you all the best! Check out Dominica’s links, send her some love!
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