Every year I visit several schools to talk about my YA novel, Crow Country. It's a time slip story that deals with issues of First Nations culture and history in a small town in rural Victoria, set partly in the present and partly in the 1930s, and since it was published in 2011, schools have found it a useful text to set, usually for Years 7 or 8.
Is it weird that occasionally I've found myself struggling to answer tricky questions from students, because I can't quite remember all the details of the story I wrote almost fifteen years ago? I thought it might be time to refresh my memory, so I reread it. And I'm relieved to say that it stood up pretty well. There were a few passages that I couldn't remember writing, things I knew I wanted to say but thought I might have left out -- there's quite a lot of material in there. If I was writing it today, I might do it slightly differently, but I'm pleased that on the whole, there isn't much I'd change.
Phew.
Kate, I've had similar experiences re-reading my books many years after they were written. It's hard to believe that after living so intensely with characters and events for months or years, you could possibly forget anything about them...but you do. And yes, it's a relief to find that mostly the books stand up well - except (for me) the two picture story books. I am just so wordy!
ReplyDeleteOf course your books stand up well, they are brilliant :) Maybe it's like childbirth, you have to forget the pain to get on with the next one ;)
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