Ask the Author: Debbie Terranova
Answered Questions (8)
Debbie Terranova
I would be a young woman in Brisbane, Australia, during WW2. Brisbane was a 'big country town' until the American troops arrived in droves in early 1942. They turned the town upside down. Women were in hot demand, and not just as dance partners. They took on jobs, formerly done by men. Women earnt money, made decisions, ran businesses as well as households. And they partied like there was no tomorrow.
Debbie Terranova
I like to write fiction with a conscience. Often it will be a documentary on the ABC or a newspaper article that sparks my imagination. 'Baby Farm' is about forced adoptions and baby trafficking. My new novel 'The Key Courier' touches on the sub-culture of tattoo art and also the controversial topic of voluntary euthanasia, which currently carries a life sentence in the Australian state where I live.
Debbie Terranova
Three things come to mind. 1. You can lose yourself in the story and the characters. 2. The practice of writing gives structure and discipline to your life. 3. Getting a emails from readers who've enjoyed your work is an absolute delight.
Debbie Terranova
I'm excited to say my next novel - 'The Key Courier' is sprinting towards the finish line. It's another cozy crime fiction about a retired art teacher who's lost her way, a handyman who specialises in matters of the heart, and a psychic tattoo artist. Intrigued? Watch out for its release mid-2016.
Debbie Terranova
Read, read, read ... write, write, write. Join a writers' group and set yourself an achievable number of words to write every day. When I'm writing, I try to do 1000 per day. I don't always get there but it doesn't matter. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind), 'Tomorrow is another day.'
Debbie Terranova
Go to a library, preferably a really beautiful one, like the Customs House Library in Sydney.
Take books randomly from the shelves and read the opening paragraphs. Get a feel for the style, the setting, the characters.
Write a few paragraphs of your own. The topic doesn't matter.
Just write.
This is an excellent way to break out of the frozen zone.
Take books randomly from the shelves and read the opening paragraphs. Get a feel for the style, the setting, the characters.
Write a few paragraphs of your own. The topic doesn't matter.
Just write.
This is an excellent way to break out of the frozen zone.
Debbie Terranova
I'm revisiting the first draft of a novella that I wrote around 2 years ago. The working title is 'Ruby Tattoo'. It's an urban crime mystery about the addictive world of body ink, a clairvoyant, and a woman with a secret obsession. There's still a lot of re-writing to be done, but I'm hoping to have it done later this year. I love the jigsaw puzzles that are crime mysteries - so much fun to write.
Debbie Terranova
'Baby Farm' was inspired by a Four Corners report in early 2012 about several women who had been the victims of forced adoptions in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s. The program coincided with the release of a Senate inquiry into forced adoptions, and was the beginning of a path that eventuated in apologies from both federal and state parliaments to all the women affected. 'Baby Farm' is a crime mystery novel, which takes the concept of forced adoptions, extends it into baby trafficking and then modernises it into designer babies and surrogacy.
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