Friday Focus

 Today Belinda Mellor is going to tell us about being a fantasy author. Thanks for visiting, Belinda.

How did you choose the genre you write in? Or did it choose you? Tell us why you love writing in whatever genre you consider your favorite.

I write myth- and folklore-inspired fantasy. I have always been fascinated by ‘story’ and story-telling: family stories, Bible stories, myths, legends, fairy tales. I was a voracious reader as a child, but C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories were my absolute favourites and the ones I read every single year. The first school prize I received – for ‘creative expression’ was a hardback copy of The Snow Queen. It is still one of my most prized possessions. I was six. At age ten I won J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’ as an English prize. That was my introduction to Tolkien. Of course, that book is illustrated by Pauline Barnes, just as the Narnia stories are, so the connection made it very special to me. Learning my favourite authors had a fascination with mythology made me interested, so, as a teen I was reading Homer’s Illiad and Oddysey. The importance of mythology to humanity inspired me to study theology at university – I attended Bristol in the UK. Writing fantasy that explores human nature, relationships, life, death and all the big questions, seems natural to me.

What does literary success look like to you?

Initial success would include: invitations to talk at writing festivals; a decent payout from the NZ library fund; finding my books in bookshops outside of New Zealand.

‘Real’ success might include having a book on a national school curriculum (any nation!) – even though I mainly write adult fiction it is suitable for any age, so I’d really love that; having a respected artist (or two) illustrate my work, perhaps for a calendar, would be wonderful; a radio serialisation wouldn’t go amiss either.

Are you a full-out plotter? Are you a "let's see what happens" pantser? Or do you think you fall somewhere in between?

I daydream all my stories before I begin writing (before I fall asleep, or in the bath, or while I’m driving) but, after that, anything can happen. I do tend to know where they are headed and what matters before I begin, but I rarely plot. Having said that, I attended a writers’ retreat last year and did a full-scale plot of a YA story that had gone astray. It had been sitting in a drawer since the Millennium because I had literally ‘lost the plot’! Knowing exactly what I was doing was really helpful in that instance.

Did you ever write a novel with a message to the readers, or at least, a message you hope your readers garnered from it? What was the book, and what was the message. Why did you want to express it?

My two novels: Silvana - the Greening and Silvana - the Turning have a very definite message: humans who love, respect and cooperate with nature and the natural world, will reap benefits. Those who treat the environment as a commodity to be exploited will suffer and make others and future generations suffer too. I hope that by making the stories beautiful, I can show people how beautiful the natural world is. If even one person looks at a tree with new eyes as a result of reading my books it will have been worth writing them.

Silvana The Greening            Silvana - The Turning

How does it make you feel when people who have read your books talk to you about them? Are you self-conscious, or does it inspire you?

I LOVE hearing from people who enjoyed my work or were moved by it. The best times are when other creative people are inspired to write poetry or make art because of my writing, and I have been fortunate that that has happened several times. But I can feel a little self-conscious. On the other hand, there’s nothing I like better than to discuss my writing with someone who is really interested so it’s worth the initial discomfort!

What did you edit OUT of your most recent book (scene/character/etc)? Why?

I wrote several thousand words of the backstory of the partner of a relatively minor character. Really, all the book needed was the fact that he had a wife, and that she was rather too old to start having children. But I do love what I wrote, so I suspect a novella might feature in the not-too-distant future. Fennua is a complex and fascinating character – a contented farmer who becomes a reluctant queen – and knowing her now as I do, she is much more real in the novel than she would have been if I had just written her in without knowing her well. Her story opens with her plucking a chicken (something I am not fond of doing) – I don’t even know where it all came from.

What have you never written about, but want to some day? 

Not so much a subject I’d like to ‘write about’, but a style: but I rather fancy having a go at a ‘who-done-it’ or a thriller. I think because it would mean learning new writing techniques and skills, which would be fun and very satisfying. Of course, it might be a cross-over: I did have an idea that involved gnomes, a circus, and also crimes that needed to be solved! A subterannean, albino Miss Marple if I recall correctly.

Did you write stories or make up stories as a child? Do you remember what any of them were about?

Yes, I can’t remember when I didn’t write. The Adventures of Bonny Bunny was my first ‘book’. I must have been about seven. It was written in pencil in an exercise book, and illustrated too! Bonny Bunny foiled a burglary, if I remember rightly. That was followed by ‘Minimus Goes To The Moon’. Minimus was a mouse (you can see a pattern with the names, I suspect). MGTTM was a chapter book. I was very proud of that. So, talking animals dressed like people were my thing. I loved my cuddly toys, and disliked dolls, so that probably accounts for why I wrote about animals.

    

Do you have a favorite writing related quote?

‘Every story is true – some of them actually happened.’