Interview with Melissa Goode - Author of 'Ordinary Human Love'
Interview with Melissa Goode - Author of ‘Ordinary Human Love’
Novel out now!
See my Review here
❤️
Melissa is an Australian writer, living in the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney. Her short stories and flash fiction have been published widely in Australia, the US, UK and Ireland. Her first novel ORDINARY HUMAN LOVE is being published by Ultimo Press and will be released in May 2024.
🌺
INTERVIEW
Welcome Melissa! What is the story behind Ordinary Human Love? What inspired you to write it?
The story is about Mardi, who seeks to create a new life for herself, back in Australia after 18 months overseas, drifting. Funnily enough, I didn’t start thinking about the book with the idea of Mardi. Instead, I had met a teenage girl, very briefly, and she made me think of Claudia. Someone who seemed older than her years. I then thought about Claudia having an older brother, Ian. And then I thought of Mardi, the central character in the story and Ian’s former lover.
Was it a difficult story to write? Were there any challenges you faced and, if so, how did you overcome them?
I found the story just poured from my hands. The characters, scenes and dialogue were already alive in my head. The main challenge I faced was the fact this was the first novel I had written. I had written lots of short stories and flash fiction and had been working on the craft of writing for a long time. But writing a novel requires a whole unique skill set. It was through this book that I learnt how to write a novel, all the complexity and layering needed for a novel which covers space and time, rather than the emotional gut punch of a shorter piece.
Describe Mardi, Claudia and Kate in one paragraph each. Their personality quirks, interests and/or what makes them unique?
Mardi: loves literature, art and music. She loves to wear dresses when she goes somewhere fancy. Her favourite drink is whiskey and water. She can be judgemental. She has a conscience which has tortured her. She has a sharp tongue.
Claudia: a teenage girl, she is impulsive, highly emotional at times, argumentative, and has the wisdom of youth, telling adults exactly what she thinks of them. She is extremely vulnerable.
Kate: a lawyer, is living the life Mardi left behind. She loves expensive clothes and homewares. She is forthright, dogmatic, and places high value on money and assets. She is competitive, aspirational.
Compare or contrast the two men: Richard and Ian? What is it about them Mardi likes and dislikes?
Richard was married to Mardi; they are now divorced. A partner at a corporate law firm, a litigator, he is competitive, single-minded, and fierce. He has lived a life of privilege - born to it, but also self-made. If there is an argument, he will win. His sheer competency made Mardi’s life easy, for a while.
Ian was Mardi’s former lover. He is a chef at a local restaurant in Hartley, Chez Pierre. He wants to become a farmer. His unhappy childhood, his hand-to-mouth way of life then, has made him determined to create a life for himself that is different to the one he was born into. But nothing comes to him easily. Mardi worries for him.
Our parents can affect and shape us in so many ways. How much influence does Mardi’s father have on her life and decisions? What was her relationship like with her mother?
Mardi’s father, Jack, was highly influential when Mardi was making decisions early in her life: to study law, to marry Richard, to work in a corporate firm. But now, Mardi, in trying to claim a new life for herself, at times rejects the influence of her father as she tries to make decisions to create a life that is meaningful to her.
Mardi’s relationship with her mother, Nadine, was very close, although Nadine had her secrets which she kept from Mardi. As Jack was often away at work when Mardi was growing up, Mardi felt as if her mother was in many ways her sole carer. They saw each other often and shared similar loves, for example, Jane Eyre.
What does Mardi learn from spending time with Claudia?
Mardi learns patience, I think. Claudia tests her in so many ways, as teenagers do. Mardi finds she must dig deep to keep her cool and not be provoked. But also, Mardi learns how difficult life has been for Claudia, and Ian, and how different Mardi’s own upbringing was. And she learns how Claudia is trapped by her circumstances.
What is the overall theme of Ordinary Human Love?
Love cannot be stopped. It is a force. And it can survive almost anything.
How important is setting in this novel?
Setting is extremely important. Mardi returns to Australia from Europe, and Europe represents escape (although escape proved impossible), whereas Australia represents reality, family, history and confronting past actions and hurts. Also, Lithgow is the town where her father, mother and ultimately Mardi, have moved from Sydney. They had lived a life of privilege in Sydney and now are exposed to a different way of life. Lithgow is surrounded by the Blue Mountains, which form a wall around it, cloistering.
Share your journey to publication. Have you always wanted to be an author?
I have always loved writing. For a long time, I worked on my writing, without submitting anything. I was learning how to write. And I was writing without expectation, which I think is the perfect way to begin. Writing is such an intricate craft and I think it takes time to find your own voice and style. For me, finding an audience came much later, and I still think that was the best way to do it. Your voice and craft do advance as you submit work, but it helps if you are already at such a level that you feel ready to send it out and get it before people whose opinions you respect and who in turn are enthusiastic about your work (which helps enormously).
What is your favourite genre? Name 4 authors and one of their books you love and what makes them extraordinary in your mind.
I love contemporary fiction, literary fiction, book club fiction. Essentially, realism is paramount to me. And I love characters who I can grow to understand, who are complex and have their own motivations, expressions, who are whole. Four authors:
- Marilynne Robinson - Home - the siblings, Jack and Glory, return to their father’s house, both for different reasons, and the character development and dynamics are absolutely masterful.
- Helen Garner - The Children’s Bach - a perfect story of families in flux, children and adults, all in a state of fundamental change and trying to best express who and what they love.
- John Banville - The Sea - rich with complexity, ugliness and beauty are interwoven, as an older man remembers his boyhood summer spending time with a family. The characters are complex - light and shade, love and misery - all in the one person.
- Lily King - Writers & Lovers - a woman tries to make her way and is often thwarted. The interweaving of history and action, the play of characters, all with their own agendas, is at times hilarious and other times devastating.
Where is your favourite place to write and what makes it special?
Nowadays, it is my office which I also use for my day job. I love the light through the windows and the trees I can see, and how they look different as the day progresses. Birds sit in the trees too and they are in the moment. I love having music playing while I write, it transports me, and I am barely cognisant of where I am.
Are you working on a new project and, if so, please share a little about it?
I am working on a second novel which is full of energy. It is still a love story (because I like writing those best of all), about two people coming together against a backdrop of grief and trauma, to try and make a new life for themselves. I wrote it, with the writerly advice in the back of my head: write to the edge of your genre. So that’s where it is, right up against the edge, and I think it is dynamic and all encompassing. I have had so much fun writing it.
Thanks Melissa for being my guest author! I wish you much success on the release of your debut novel!
Drop by Melissa’s website for more info on her writing and to contact her.
