Ask the Author: Lesley Truffle
Answered Questions (8)
Lesley Truffle
As the ferry fought its way across the heaving sea, Theodore ordered a warm pie and a whiskey. When he bit into the crust, the pie shuddered and a tiny furry paw shot out and grabbed his nose.
Lesley Truffle
I'd love to visit Wolfftown on the wild, wild West Coast of Tasmania. I built the entire town there as I wanted an untamed, fictional location for my novel 'The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte'.
Upon arriving in Wolfftown, I'd immediately head to Sasha's patisserie for her sumptuous pastries washed down with Cognac. But if I arrived at night, I'd go straight to the Baudelaire Theatre to drink champagne in the bar and see their latest Shakespeare play.
Upon arriving in Wolfftown, I'd immediately head to Sasha's patisserie for her sumptuous pastries washed down with Cognac. But if I arrived at night, I'd go straight to the Baudelaire Theatre to drink champagne in the bar and see their latest Shakespeare play.
Lesley Truffle
My favorite fictional couple would have to be Van Veen and Ada Veen in Vladimir Nabokov's novel 'Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle '. Van first meets Ada at his uncle’s country estate Ardis Hall in the late 1800’s, when Van and Ada are adolescents. Their relationship is flammable, passionate and erotic. The intricacies and deviancy of their love affair revolve around the complicated relationship between Van’s father and the twins Aqua Durmanov and Marina Durmanov.
I don’t want to reveal too much as it will spoil it for you!
I don’t want to reveal too much as it will spoil it for you!
Lesley Truffle
When its going well writing it feels like a very deep meditation. My characters stay with me and as they evolve they guide the plot. With the current manuscript I'm working on this can sometimes be problematic as my mind is very active between the hours of 2.00am - 5.00am! And at the moment there is a whole township in my head. When this happens I resort to a brain clean by reading a favorite book. Often it's Trask's translation of Casanova's 'History of My Life' - at twelve volumes it can be read and reread.
Lesley Truffle
Read everything – be indiscriminate – and have adventures. And just get the writing done!
Lesley Truffle
I'm currently working on a new novel which involves historical research. I quite enjoy the process as I follow where the characters take me and read fiendishly as I go. I also get to spend time in the State Library of Victoria. It's a magnificent old building - with a cosy cafe - and you can daydream under the dome.
Lesley Truffle
It usually starts with an image and then the image develops into a character. So for example with 'Hotel du Barry' it started when I read a non-fiction account of impoverished mothers somewhere in America during the 30's Depression, pegging their babies to their clotheslines to keep them safe and out of the way.
Later that night when I was having a drink in a bar with a lovesick male friend, an image came to me of a plump, chortling baby being surreptitiously pegged to the clothesline of a luxury hotel. And my friend's tale of love gone wrong somehow got mixed into the narrative.
Mainly because it occurred to me that women do the darndest things when they’re pushed to extremes by their wayward lovers.
Later that night when I was having a drink in a bar with a lovesick male friend, an image came to me of a plump, chortling baby being surreptitiously pegged to the clothesline of a luxury hotel. And my friend's tale of love gone wrong somehow got mixed into the narrative.
Mainly because it occurred to me that women do the darndest things when they’re pushed to extremes by their wayward lovers.
Lesley Truffle
It was at a wonderful Melbourne Fringe Festival event years ago - I can't remember the name of the play! It was an absurdist piece and one of the characters was gripping an extremely large wooden spoon. The image of the spoon stayed with me and slowly a new character, Sasha Torte emerged. She then evolved into a Tasmanian pastry maker who has been convicted of murder and is languishing in a slammer in the (fictitious) town of Wolfftown Tasmania.
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