I first fell in love with Alison’s writing after reading a short story (The Promise). It may have been short (and I mean short) but it packed such a punch that I cried. I have since learned there is much more to this author and definitely time for a cuppa and a chat.
Given I have been less than impressed with the Arrowroot biccies of late, I asked Alison what I might expect of her hospitality at home. She said:
If you were to appear at my place for elevenses you would of course be met by an elegantly dressed woman with immaculate makeup and plied with French champagne and a plate of cucumber sandwiches. The reality is you may well be met at the door by a scruffy personage in tracksuit bottoms, red ugg boots and one of her son’s old rugby jumpers and if you’re lucky we may be able to rustle up a cup of Twinings Australian Afternoon Tea and a rice cracker.
(Crikey! How does one live on rice crackers? I guess it’s a change from Arrowroot!)
At home with Alison…
My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home – or a closet gnomer?
No gnomes but I do have a couple of concrete frogs and some large pretend owls we bought to scare the possums—like that really worked!
(Fake frogs, pretend owls AND crackers masquerading as food! Perhaps leave the rice crackers out, Al. That’s sure to scare the possums away.)
What vegetable (or fruit) have you always wanted to grow at home?
Would love to grow decent tomatoes. Our little inner suburban garden doesn’t get enough light.
(If you had tomatoes right now and sold them at the market price you could retire.)
If you sorted your wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Ahh, do you sort your wardrobe by colour?!)
I am a Melbournian…what colour do you think stands out? That would be black.
What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)
Trakkie daks, ugg boots and my oldest sweat shirt. A picture of sartorial elegance!
(Ugg boots are trending here in Author Harvest.)
Country curiosities…
We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?
I am a proud owner and wearer of a classic Akubra for wearing in the country, but in the city I have a black (see answer to clothes above) woollen hat I bought fifteen years ago from a street stall in London.
If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?
An oak tree of course.
(Okay, am now visualing yellow ribbons and singing that damn song!)
About you…
Your turning point: when was that point in your life that you realized that being an author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?
The day my boss told me I didn’t have to come into work on Monday!
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Actually getting around to it. So many other distractions, reasons to procrastinate. Too hot…too cold etc etc. Once I start I’m fine.
If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?
I rather like “A Life Well Lived”.
Fun stuff…
What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.
I can see my heroes flinching every time I come near them. What did we ever do to you? What is it this time…a sword? A musket ball?
(A rice cracker?)
When my characters are talking back to me, all is well with my writing world.
If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?
Sing.
(Is this going to be a torturous rendition of ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree’? Oh, no, I…I didn’t mean… Sorry, Alison…no, I’m not calling you old…really!)
Name 5 uses for a stapler that has not staple pins.
A hammer
A worry ball (or thing for fiddling with while thinking)
A paper weight
An object for hide and seek (mostly under the paper on my desk)
A bookmark
How weird are you? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (not) to 10 (very).
Hey, I’m a Capricorn, we don’t do weird…but then again I am a romance writer. That’s pretty weird!
Lovely chatting, Alison.
Alison’s latest release – Gather The Bones – is a stunning book (one look at the cover and the title tells you that).
The horrors of the Great War are not the only ghosts that haunt Helen Morrow and her late husband’s reclusive cousin, Paul. Unquiet spirits from another time and another conflict touch them.
A coded diary gives them clues to the mysterious disappearance of Paul’s great-grandmother in 1812, and the desperate voice of a young woman reaches out to them from the pages. Together Helen and Paul must search for answers, not only for the old mystery, but also the circumstances surrounding the death of Helen’s husband at Passchandaele in 1917.
As the mysteries entwine, their relationship is bound by the search for truth, in the present and the past.
For more about Alison and her writing: www.alisonstuart.com
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