Recently we had Victoria Carless in store to sign copies of her new book Gus and the Starlight. We took the opportunity to ask her a few questions!
1. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Good question. I think I’m somewhere in between. I do have a few scenes ahead plotted out and I usually know the ending but I like to have a bit of a problem or a mystery as well to solve, that’s what keeps me writing.
2. What is your number one rule for writing?
Set a goal and try to stick to it. If in doubt, do a scene map. A scene map is where you very broadly plot out what scene it is, who’s in it, who’s the point of view and what happens. And then you get to see clearly where your gaps are and how you can develop your story further.
3. Do you have a favourite writing place?
I feel like my answers are very boring! Just my office, when no one else is at home. For obvious reasons. But it’s nice if the pets are there.
4. Are you reading anything at the moment?
Yes, I am reading We Run the Tides which I’m really enjoying because it is published for adults but it’s from the perspective of 13 year old girls and it’s kind of all about understanding your place in your community and getting a sense of your power as a young woman, I guess, and how you grow into that.
5. What are you working on next?
I’m working on two middle grade works – I kind of alternate between them. The first one I’m trying to incorporate some elements of quantum physics in there which I don’t really understand so it’s taking me some time to kind of understand how that works and how that might become a metaphor in the story. And I’m also trying to write one called Stella the Bad and Stinky Fairy which is about girls being able to be naughty and smelly if they want to!
Gus and the Starlight
by Victoria Carless
Gus doesn't want to make friends. She also doesn't want to be intrigued by the cat-lady teacher at her new school, or the Riley's Comet project that she and her seaweed-eating science partner are working on together.
And she definitely doesn't want to fall in love with her job as the projectionist at the Starlight, a drive-in movie theatre that her family is reviving.
Because, knowing Gus's luck, she and her family could be moving on in a day, or a week, or a month. When the ghosts that haunt Mum catch up with them. Or if the Starlight doesn't succeed.
Then she'll have to say goodbye. Again.
And saying goodbye is too hard.