Five minutes with local author Lisa Fuller
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Local Canberra author Lisa Fuller brings us her second book for kids, Washpool – a magical middle-grade adventure about two sisters who need to rely on their own wits, bravery, EI and each other when they’re pulled into a new world.
We took five minutes with her to talk about her new book, which is out now through Hachette.
A quest story is such a good way to explore some big issues — how did you work to balance pushing the plot along while exploring issues such as difference, acceptance, collaboration and self-belief?
I’ll be honest, I plan nothing when I start. I sit and write and it’s only when I reach the end of a manuscript do I realise where I was going in the first place. Then I have to go back and strengthen those themes and make things work. Washpool was an entirely different animal. It was written across years, through a letter exchange with my nieces – to get the next chapter of ‘their’ story, they had to write me a letter back. It was a hodge-podge that I sent to black&write on a total whim. I was lucky enough to be chosen and spent a year working with amazing editors, Jasmin McGaughey and Grace Lucas-Pennington to whip it into shape. Then, after signing with Hachette, we entered another long editing process. Throughout, I had my family checking the work to help me, but also to make sure the girls were still comfortable with me using their names and basing the characters on them. In a lot of ways this was a team effort, and I owe a lot of people thanks.
Are you a big fantasy reader? What do you think it can do that realist fiction can’t?
Fantasy is my favourite genre, and all the subgenres that come under it. But I love most things “specfic”. As a teenager, specfic works were the only books that had themes and characters that spoke to me. I was struggling with a very white-washed media at the time, and I didn’t have the words to talk about the things I was struggling with like issues of race, politics, othering, class etc. Specfic dives right into those issues. And they were presented in a way that was non-threatening to those who had control of my access to these works at the time. Books were always a place I could escape to, but I learnt a lot in the process. Even if the content is unreal, every story is at its heart about people. Fiction allows us to enter other peoples’ hearts and minds, to get a glimpse of their reality, and hopefully develop empathy for a perspective and/or experience outside our own. As an adult, that love for specfic is more complicated and things need to happen to address long-standing issues, but fantasy will always have my heart. I highly recommend people read Mykaela Saunders piece, ‘Overture’ in her anthology This All Come Back Now, and Ambelin Kwaymullina’s piece, ‘Edges, centres and futures’ in Kill Your Darlings, because they both explain this complex love so much more eloquently than I ever could.
I loved how problems were solved by the children’s/young people’s bravery but also an act of great kindness. Tell us what else we can learn from kids?
I watched a TedTalk years ago by a man named Reg Stewart that was about cultural (il)literacy. His words about needing to get outside your comfort zone to engage with other cultures and those different from ourselves have stayed with me, especially when he related it to how children take to learning new things. I think kids have an openness, curiosity and bravery when being exposed to new experiences and learnings that the realities of adult life can break. They have a willingness to play and get things wrong that I greatly admire. A lot of adults seem to lose those qualities, including me, and I think we should be working to hang on to them. We have so much to learn, and I think as we age we forget that. My elders taught me that life is a journey of learning, and that’s how I try to see it. I also look to my daughter and niblings, and I try to remember to play.
The world the sisters fall into sounds physically so beautiful — how did you picture it, to then describe it? Were you inspired by anything in particular?
At first, it was just the twist at the end of the first chapter I sent to my nieces (what was originally the first chapter anyway). When they emerge into Muse through Washpool, the pink sky is the first hint that something is very wrong. A lot of it was originally based on the girls’ favourite colours at the time, and how I could make it fun for them to interact with. Then, I used the favourite colours of their siblings and the rest of the family. But it became a bit hard to balance at times, and I had to start trying to picture things clearly in my mind. When that didn’t work, I spent a long time looking at colour wheels, mood boards and all the different shades of purple, pink etc.
The real Bella and Cienna must be delighted to be the inspiration for a book! How important is family to you and are you a family of readers and storytellers?
We’re Aboriginal, so family and storytelling are at the core of who we are. I grew up with all different stories told in various ways, as have our kids. My mum has actively encouraged reading in all of us, and I’m doing the same with my daughter now. Washpool was my attempt to be part of the girls’ literacy journey, and while they aren’t massive readers at the moment, I hope they’ll come back to it. The entire book is a family affair, and my acknowledgements are quite long as a result. But they’ve given us stories that we’ll hold close to our hearts for always. The real Cienna and Bella are now 18 and 16 respectively, so they’re not as interested in the book as they were sadly. But I know they’re proud of me, and they have given me permission to continue to use their names and to turn ‘their story’ into a publishable work. We talked a lot about what that would mean in terms of making ‘them’ into actual characters I would change and play with. Which was a very weird process for me but hopefully not for them.
The book was partially written as part of the black & write fellowship. Tell us a bit about that — the process, the support, the other fellows…
I tossed it on a total whim, and I never expected to win. To be picked was a huge honour, and I was able to travel up and meet the minister, the other winner, Tania Crampton-Larking, and get presented the award. My mother, Cienna, and Bella were with me, and I made them stand up, which I think they’d have happily killed me for. I got to spend an entire year with Jas and Grace, whom I have so much respect and love for, in a culturally safe space working from a shared worldview. The regular meetings were a huge help, because it meant I had firm deadlines I needed to work to, which I’ve learned is something I need. I learned a lot from them both and I hope they did from me, too, in some way. I cannot say enough about the amazing work that black&write does for Blak writers and editors, and thus for the publishing environment in this country. It truly feels like things have come full circle, because Tania’s book, Brightest Wild, came out literally the week before Washpool, which was so exciting to see. It’s currently at the top of my TBR.
Any reading recommendations for those who enjoy Washpool?
Ooo that’s so hard. I hate comparing my work with others, but I also haven’t had any time to read since starting my PhD and then deciding to have a baby in the process. Can I instead recommend some middle-grade-ish) books I really enjoy, and they aren’t necessarily related? Some I’ve had to read again because I’m helping to teach them at UC, so they’re fresh and amazing. In which case, The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans, Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee, Ubby’s Underdogs by Brenton E. McKenna, Bindi by Kirli Saunders…
What’s on your TBR?
This is HUGE! As in it’s no longer a pile, it’s one and half bookcases now. I told myself that after my PhD was finished, I’d spend three months reading them all, but then we just had to go and have a baby in the midst of all that. And there’s so many out recently that I’m in heaven but also hell (no time!). Some are recently published, some I’ve only bought recently now that I’m no longer a poor student and can afford to indulge my obsessions again. A small sample off the top of my head: Tania’s Brightest Wild mentioned above, Uncle Xbox by Jared Thomas, Nerra by Tasman Walton, the Ash Barty books with Ash and Jasmin McGaughey, When the world was soft by Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, Wurrtoo by Tylissa Elisara, Kimberley Kickers by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler (with others), the Yarn Quest series by Brooke Scobie, Sunny and Shadow by Helen Milroy… just too many! And these are just the middle-grade ones. Don’t even get me started on the YA and adult! Can someone please invent a time machine so I can hit pause and find a spot between seconds to just read?
