Ask the Author: Sally Carbon
Answered Questions (2)
Sally Carbon
Truth be told, I'm having a dig at society. I started writing Australian Team Series because I was becoming increasing annoyed at societies misinterpretation of sportspeople. We want our athletes to be different, to be the best, and to be risk takers...on the field. And then, we are asking them to faultless, giving and calm...off of it. Unfortunately the second side of this argument is winning out in our society where opinions are making and breaking it. We are dulling down a sportsperson's ability to succeed on the field. We are, and will continue, to get an average sporting outcome, because we are watering down the possibility to be brilliant. This is why I was inspired to write this series. I wanted to get readers to completely and utterly sit within an athletes mind, body and soul and have empathy for what they're going through.
This issue is not just having impact in high performance sport. We're creating the same type of conundrum in the workforce and within our education systems. 'Stick to the rules' we say, then, in the next breath, we inspire with 'dare, its okay to be different, have a go'. But jeepers, if you do that, we'll tell you how 'bad' you've been---just you wait.
Its this message I have used to structure TEAM MATES as well. I deliberately didn't use a romance formula (90 000 words, five sex scenes, third person, boy meets girls, have a problem, solve the problem). I actually cant stand this formula because it isn't real to me. I NEED REAL. I NEED WARTS AND ALL REFLECTION OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE. Through sport I've been taught to cope with real. Real is often slow and fatiguing, real is happy, real is heart breaking, and real can be bloody fantastic. But I will not pretend and hide from this real world.
This issue is not just having impact in high performance sport. We're creating the same type of conundrum in the workforce and within our education systems. 'Stick to the rules' we say, then, in the next breath, we inspire with 'dare, its okay to be different, have a go'. But jeepers, if you do that, we'll tell you how 'bad' you've been---just you wait.
Its this message I have used to structure TEAM MATES as well. I deliberately didn't use a romance formula (90 000 words, five sex scenes, third person, boy meets girls, have a problem, solve the problem). I actually cant stand this formula because it isn't real to me. I NEED REAL. I NEED WARTS AND ALL REFLECTION OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE. Through sport I've been taught to cope with real. Real is often slow and fatiguing, real is happy, real is heart breaking, and real can be bloody fantastic. But I will not pretend and hide from this real world.
Sally Carbon
Locking together 20 years of high performance sport, with 20 years of helping other athletes to achieve (as a mentor), plus raising $50 million per year to support Australian athletes, plus parenting our own little athletes, gives you a great deal of fodder to write a collection of books. I read a lot of 'inspiration' books and a little selective romance (eg Black Dagger Brotherhood) and watch many sporting documentaries. I recall watching Netflix 'Fittest on Earth' (2017). I was hooked into the 'observer effect' realising that these 'strange' athletes were athletes completely invested in being brilliant. Plus, I was lavishing lapping up the poetic words used by four narrators of the documentary. They fused fiction and non-fiction like a new-age artform.
Its this pseudo fictional, pseudo factual style I used to create TEAM MATES and TEAM PURSUIT. I recall the 'Fittest on Earth' line 'these athletes deliberately choose crazy'. And oh my gosh, its so true. The best athletes in the world choose crazy. You have to choose to go into a psychological zone not recommended, and this is why athletes have trouble fitting into a more socially pattern during and after their sporting eras.
**Throw in a side-serve of 'Last Chance U' and Australian football (AFL) on TV, and I'm a happy lady.
Its this pseudo fictional, pseudo factual style I used to create TEAM MATES and TEAM PURSUIT. I recall the 'Fittest on Earth' line 'these athletes deliberately choose crazy'. And oh my gosh, its so true. The best athletes in the world choose crazy. You have to choose to go into a psychological zone not recommended, and this is why athletes have trouble fitting into a more socially pattern during and after their sporting eras.
**Throw in a side-serve of 'Last Chance U' and Australian football (AFL) on TV, and I'm a happy lady.
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