– Conducted via email. 5-6 June, 2016 | The Girl in Green launch, SCRIBE

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Derek B. Miller author of THE GIRL IN GREEN

Hi Derek, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?

I’m a native New Englander, born and raised in Greater Boston. I lived in New York and then Washington DC for college and graduate school and later moved to Europe in 1996, making this my 20 year anniversary. That’s something of a milestone for me, and its odd to think that in only six or seven more years I’ll have spent more of my life in Europe than America, given how relentlessly American I am (just ask my Norwegian wife).

I worked in international affairs for over twenty years at the UN, with think tanks and now as director of The Policy Lab® which I founded in 2011. We mainly work on helping organizations turn knowledge and creative thinking into strategic assets in the design of solutions, most often on humanitarian, development, and peace and security matters. This has given me a distinct footing into the material in the novel.

In terms of writing, I started on fiction in 1996. I did this quietly and didn’t mention it most people because it was probably considered weird or pretentious or socially “off.” Also, people aren’t interested in hearing you blather on for a decade about your efforts to write one or more manuscripts that never become novels. But I loved everything about it and I toiled away at the art and craft of it until 2008 when my first novel (but not my first manuscript) was finally sold. That was Norwegian by Night which met some very positive critical reception. Today, I’m writing more and more. I see myself doing this until I drop dead or the critics kill me.

What was your inspiration when creating the characters Thomas Benton and Arwood Hobbes?

The Girl in Green is set in Iraq, and about two-thirds of the book is firmly planted in the year 2013, which was an interesting time. The U.S. troops were mostly gone, Iraq was kind of on its own (though with constant international interference, including from Iran), and ISIL hadn’t quite broken off from al-Qaeda and become its own, distinct problem. In that turning-point moment, the international humanitarian organizations were still operating in refugee camps and around the country trying to protect civilians and provide support to the local population. So this novel is not a war book, and it is not about soldiers. It’s something else. To some extent, it’s something still undefined. Maybe it’s the first “peace book?” I don’t know. But it’s stepping into an uncharted space, anyway.

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About Corey Vlahos

Profile: View Corey 's profile here

Email: corey.vlahos@www.theaustraliatimes.com.au

Lynette Noni is the author of The Medoran Chronicles (Arkanae, Raelia and Draekora), a Young Adult fantasy series following protagonist Alex Jennings as she stumbles upon the magical world of Medora and tries to make her way back home.

Wanda Wiltshire is the author of the Betrothed series (Betrothed, Allegiance and Confused), a series divided between Earth and the magical world of Faera; home to faeries and perhaps Marla’s long lost soul mate. 

I sat down with both Lynette and Wanda and had a chat about their different writing styles, their inspirations and creative processes. Here’s what they had to say:

What inspired you to go into YA? Was it your own reflection of childhood, teenagers in your life or certain authors that really connected you to the genre? 

Wanda: Well, when I started writing it was, the very short version of it, was the result of an epiphany. And so I just wrote the story that came to me. The story was actually the answer to a prayer quite literally. I had no kind of feeling about which genre it might fit into or who the audience would be or anything like that. I didn’t start to think about that until afterwards. But I definitely draw on my own childhood. Especially my main character Marla who kinda has had a bit of a struggle with her childhood and then slowly throughout the novel we see her find herself and find her strengths and use them, so in that way my childhood has inspired. And my audience actually, is not just Young Adult either. I think that’s the starting point but I’ve also got readers that are grandmothers who then pass it down to their children and their grandchildren so it wasn’t really a thought thing, it was just something that happened. 

Lynette: I was reading, I’ve always loved reading younger books, and I was reading a lot of them at a time just before I started writing and I was growing increasingly concerned by a lot of the protagonists and the age of the readers to how mature the themes were in the books, and I wanted to write a book that had a lot of the normal mild tropes and enjoyment and escapism kind of elements, but with someone who was healthy to sort of look at. Not look at as in physically but look at as in be inspired by, be encouraged by. When a reader reads a book, especially in that age group, they’ll want to be that person. So I wanted to give them someone who was relatable and someone they could aspire to be but also someone who wasn’t teaching them stuff that I wouldn’t want my kids to be taught if I had them in that age group too. Basically I wrote the book I wanted to read. 

So you were more influenced by what you’ve read?

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About Tara Motherwell

A Melbourne based writer, coffee drinker, day dreamer and occasional wanderer.

Profile: View Tara's profile here

Email: tara.motherwell@www.theaustraliatimes.com.au

Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave, Vic.

When: Thursday April 16th, 1pm.

Danielle will be speaking about her background, education, inspiration, and the themes and stories of each of her published books.

Her most recent book is – Blom – A Woman’s Journey to Individuation – A novel in verse

Blom, meaning flower in German, is the incredible story of a woman who channels philosophies and music of legendary thinkers and musicians, in a subconscious language heard only in dreams.

As told through poetic form, a woman receives psychic communications, with a subconscious understanding and knowledge of German. The poetic form adds a musicality and lyricism to the novel, and evokes the symbolic quality of dreams.

The novel begins at a séance in the early 1900s, attended by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, where his cousin Helene Prieswerk as medium, summons the spirits of the dead.

Author’s background:
The author’s background includes a Master of Arts in Writing and Literature, and books available in libraries throughout Australia, including a psychological thriller novel, Blood for St Valentine, Ellipse – a collection of poetry, short fiction, Raiders of the Headland and other stories, the children’s novel, The Orphan of Botany Bay, and the thesis, Psychological Reflections on Post-Modernist Gothic Literature.