Ask the Author: Victoria Osborne

“Ask me a question.” Victoria Osborne

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Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?

Victoria Osborne Our first love is our best, yes? So I turn to Elnora and Philip from 'A Girl of the Limberlost' by Gene Stratton-Porter. Elnora Comstock was a great friend of mine, put upon and castigated unnecessarily by her mother, and striving, always striving, to improve herself and find her place in the world. When Philip Ammon comes to the Limberlost to convalesce, he sees Elnora at first as something beautiful in nature, like a butterfly or Yellow Emperor moth. As he grows to know her, and her mother, he recognises her courage, intelligence and he cannot help but admire her musical talent as well. Both Philip and Elnora are selfless and sincere and, I expect, far too sentimental for today's audience! Oh, but I love Stratton-Porter's descriptions of a world disappearing right in front of her - the wilderness of Indiana.

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Was Man Of Clay meant to be a kind of allegory, and how did you come to choose frogs?

Victoria Osborne

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Hi, Jeffrey, thanks so much for your questions! Firstly, I suppose Man of Clay is an allegory. Connie longs to keep something she knows is no longer good for her, her relationship with Jude.

Like the tobacco addict (I gave up) or the driver of a petrol-fuelled car (hi, there!) or the user of coal-powered electricity (yup, like me!), we all long to keep living the way we know (on some level) to be injurious to our health.

I regard Man of Clay as my 'climate change novel' as much as Ian McEwan's book Solar. And, as an interesting parallel, his lead character is a scientist and, like Jude, makes emotional mistakes in his relationships. He's rather uncertain and weak. The climate change 'debate' has left expert scientists reeling, punished for their timidity, their thoughtfulness and their attention to detail, while those who are able to manipulate the media machine with their dogmatic denials and supreme scepticism look decisive and knowledgeable.

It's not that Connie can't understand that the time for this relationship is gone, its that she thinks she will live with him in some small way, make do with what she can get, even though she knows that's destructive.

Clearly when she does turn off the kiln for the last time she is making an obvious departure from fossil fuel use and she's clearly farewelled Jude! And so she disappears and no one knows what happens to her.

Connie is like all of us in our reluctance to change. We are the ones causing climate change and until we all turn off our respective kilns (and turn on solar panels or wind turbines or something clean!) we can't progress into clean air. I guess none of us know what will happen in the future, which is why Connie had to disappear, but I don't think using renewable energy is going to kill us!

As for the frogs, Jeffrey, in the second part of your question, it's stated reasonably clearly in the book that I think frogs are our sentinel species. Like the miners carrying canaries in cages to check for dangerous levels of gas in the mines, so too we can observe these fragile creatures and see how they are coping with the changes in our atmosphere.

Frogs look a bit like human embryos, don't you think? In direct contrast to human beings, though, their population is decreasing.

I hope you enjoyed the book and that I've gone some way to answering your question. Ask me another!
(hide spoiler)]

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Victoria Osborne Actually Man of Clay started shape as a film script years ago. I was fascinated by the idea of a man running his many children like a team of bandits or pickpockets as in Oliver Twist. So you can see the idea has changed considerably over twenty or so years! The Ektek Trilogy came out of a play I wrote about endangered creatures. Does this mean I hang on to ideas for too long?

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How do you get inspired to write?

Victoria Osborne Man of Clay was a labour over many years. I think it was like gardening in that all the ideas and things that interested me went into my compost-mind. Then I laid out the garden, I planted seeds and plants grew. Some overshaded or overcrowded others and had to be pruned or even removed. Some things died or were planted in the wrong kind of soil. I had to act like a goat and get round and nibble things. Somethings blossomed in a surprising manner while some needed training. And, hey presto, after a mere fifteen years, anyone can take a walk through my garden!

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What are you currently working on?

Victoria Osborne Too soon to say.

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Victoria Osborne Decide how much you want an audience. If you want to write, then write for yourself and don't worry about getting out to be read. But, if like me, you want to share ideas with other people, then you might have to make some concessions.

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Victoria Osborne Writing. Reading. Puzzling things out. Admiring better writers. Getting inspired. Having an idea. Meeting someone who has found something interesting in your work and realising that your words have found an audience!

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Victoria Osborne I'm not sure about Writer's Block. I'm not sure what that is. Block? Lock? Clock? Is there a deadline?

If you want to write then you have to write. Something. Anything. Bumglue. If you don't want to write then go for a run, go to the movies, do something. Anything.

But is not wanting to write the same as 'writer's block'?

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Victoria Osborne

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